'Absolute lad': Chris Gayle's entertaining five-over cameo

Chris Gayle took his showmanship to a new level in the West Indies’ Cricket World Cup loss to England on Friday.

The 39-year-old has delighted fans in the field throughout the tournament so far, doing his best to stop balls without any significant physical exertion.

And when he was handed the ball against England he played it all up in an entertaining spell.

First he warming up with the ‘floss’ dance:

Then he bowled in his glasses, and even with his hat.

Gayle mocked DRS signals and even tried to convince the umpire to dismiss an England batsman.

He finished with figures of 0-22 off five overs as England won by eight wickets with almost 17 overs to spare.

Remarkably, his slow bowling also proved the most economic of all West Indies bowlers.

Gayle’s spell came after Andre Russell was once again forced to leave the field because of his creaky knees.

The West Indies allrounder could only bowl two overs, with skipper Jason Holder saying it has been a difficult week for the explosive all-rounder Russell.

"We have been trying our best to keep him on the park, but it is proving difficult," Holder said.

"Yeah, going forward, we have to persist. He is here for a reason."

Russell dropped to the ground at the end of the 11th over, his second, after directing a short-pitch ball at England opener Jonny Bairstow. He left the field and didn't bowl another over.

"We think he can be a match-winner for us," Holder said.

"We have just got to cope with him. Got to do everything we possibly can with him to keep him on the park."

West Indies split a series 2-2 in the Caribbean against England earlier in the year to raise expectations and rose in semi-final calculations with the big win over Pakistan and the close loss to five-time champions Australia.

With one win, two losses and one point from the washout, West Indies are already in the position of having to win against Bangladesh in Taunton on Monday.

Following that, there are back-to-back matches against the unbeaten New Zealand and India.

Holder is confident a pace contingent containing Cottrell, Oshane Thomas, Carlos Brathwaite and Shannon Gabriel can bounce back, and the batsmen will start finding some consistency to help West Indies into the top four and a spot in the semifinals.

"It would be very foolish not to be confident," he said.

"We have only played four games. A hell of a lot of cricket left to be played.

"We have just got to be disciplined and make sure we come against Bangladesh firstly in our next game and make sure we beat Bangladesh."

with agencies