WEST INDIES OPENER Chris Gayle smashed his way into the record books yesterday, scoring a remarkable 36 runs in a single over during the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s nine-wicket IPL victory over the Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

The 31-year-old was in a rather unforgiving mood as he faced the Tuskers’ Prasanth Parameswaran, firing four sixes and two fours off the first six balls.

Then, facing an additional ball which had been awarded after the umpires deemed Parameswaran’s second delivery to have been a no ball, Gayle edged the delivery past the wicket keeper to pick up yet another four.

Although the official scorecard shows Gayle to have scored 36 runs in the third over of Bangalore’s innings, the extra awarded for the no ball means that Kerala actually conceded a staggering 37 runs in Parameswaran’s first over with the ball.

After wowing spectators at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Gayle was bowled by Lasith Malinga in the very next over. However, his sizable contribution of 44 off just 16 balls allowed his teammates to easily see out the victory, picking up the required 126 runs with almost seven full overs remaining.

The 31-year-old’s unprecedented haul will go down as the highest single-over total recorded by a batsman in Twenty20 Cricket, though there are some who will question its “authenticity,” assisted as it was by the bowler’s error.

Only four players in cricketing history – Garfield Sobers, Ravi Shastri, Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh – have hit all six balls of an over for six.