Jamaica's Chris Gayle drives during his unbeaten knock of 28 against Nevis Pro team in the Stanford 20/20 quarter-final at Stanford Cricket Ground on Sunday night. - Photo courtesy of Stanford 20/20 websit

COOLIDGE, Antigua (CMC)

West Indies batsman Chris Gayle has admitted to being rusty after an uncharacteristic knock for Jamaica in their Stanford Twenty20 quarter-final match against Nevis on Saturday night.

The usually aggressive Gayle played a subdued innings while steering the Jamaicans to a comfortable eight-wicket win over Nevis at Stanford Cricket Ground.

In his first competitive match in six weeks since a pulled hamstring and a fractured finger aborted his South Africa tour, the big left-hander hit only three boundaries while scoring 28 not out off 43 balls in the game designed for fast scoring.

"I was struggling a bit, feeling a bit strange. I've been out of cricket for a quite a while now," said Gayle, whose timing was of he looked untroubled for most of his innings.

Heavy artillery

"I am trying to get the feel again and hopefully next game maybe you'll see a different Chris Gayle," added Gayle, who lashed a terrific hundred in the World Twenty20 Championship last year in South Africa.

The Jamaicans brought out their heavy artillery with five players from the West Indies tour of South Africa - Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Brenton Parchment, Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor - inserted in their line-up plus others with West Indies experience.

Their victory was composed without being really emphatic against the plucky Nevisians, but Gayle was satisfied with the performance.

"The guys have been playing terrific cricket and just to continue in the same vein, four five guys came in and played pretty well today," Gayle said.

The Jamaicans were eliminated by the Guyanese at the quarter-final stage at the inaugural Stanford tournament in the summer of 2006 and Gayle wants to ensure that his players rise to the occasion this time.

"This is our first time reaching the semi-finals from the (disappointment of) last season and hopefully we can take it from there. They say we have the strongest team and so on. There has been a lot of talk so hopefully we will stick to the basics and try and get the job done," he added.

Choosing to bat first, Nevis scored 121 for eight off their 20 overs and Jamaica replied with 123 for two in 17.4 overs with man of the match Samuels getting 46.

Jamaica's skipper Chris Gayle drives through the covers during the Stanford 20/20 quarter-final match against the Nevis Pro team at the Stanford Cricket Ground on Saturday night. He made 28 not out. - Photo courtesy of Stanford 20/20 website

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