Gayle on Mulder's 367* declaration: He 'panicked and blundered'

Former West Indies captain Chris Gayle has criticised South Africa's stand-in captain Wiaan Mulder for not going after Brian Lara's record of the highest individual Test score earlier this week, when he declared on 367 not out against Zimbabwe.

Gayle, a former team-mate of Lara, said Mulder "maybe panicked" and made an "error" by not chasing the "once in a lifetime opportunity."

"If I could get the chance to get 400, I would get 400," Gayle told talkSPORT. "That doesn't happen often. You don't know when you're going to get to a triple-century again. Any time you get a chance like that, you try and make the best out of it."

Mulder said he did this out of respect for Lara's record and Gayle accepted that, to an extent: "But he was so generous and said he wanted the record to stay with Brian Lara. Maybe he panicked, he didn't know what to do in that situation.

"Come on, you're on 367, automatically you have to take a chance at the record. If you want to be a legend... how are you going to become a legend? Records come with being a legend.

Mulder, 27, was playing only his 21st Test, against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo where South Africa were put in to bat. Mulder went out at No. 3 in the 10th over of the innings and Zimbabwe were unable to dismiss him in the 334 balls he faced, of which 49 were stuck for fours and four for sixes. He was unbeaten on 264 at the end of the first day and not far from Lara's record on 367 when the teams took lunch, but South Africa never returned to bat as they had declared.

"I think it was an error from his side, not to try and go to get it," Gayle said. "We don't know if he would go on and get it or not. But he declared on 367 and he said what he had to say. But listen, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to get 400 runs in a Test match. Come on, youngster, you've blown it big time."

Gayle further said the quality of the opposition did not matter in such records.

"It's the same cricket, Test cricket," Gayle said. "Sometimes you can't even get one run against a team like Zimbabwe, if you want to put it that way. It doesn't matter, the opponent, if you get a hundred against any team, that's a Test century. If you get a double or triple, 400, that's Test cricket. That's the ultimate game.

"Like I said, he panicked and he blundered, straight up."

Much of the cricket world has been debating the event, and a question was even put to England's Ben Stokes at the press conference ahead of the Lord's Test. Would he have declared on a batter so close to the record?

"As captain, you'd rather do it to yourself than the captain pulling out on a groundbreaking day," Stokes said. "I think he said something about how it should stay with Brian. He's not going to get that opportunity again. They got the win, which obviously is the big thing that counts."