Gayle the new batting favourite

Only a few matches into the Twenty20 World Cup and it is all change in the market for top runscorer in the competition with original favourites Adam Gilchrist and Matt Hayden way down the list after their failures in the shock defeat by Zimbabwe and centurion Chris Gayle at the top.

Gayle hit the highest score in Twenty20 international history and though West Indies lost to South Africa, if the efforts of other bookmakers are any indicator, he is set to be the new favourite to be top batsman of the competition when bet365 update their prices.

Herschelle Gibbs, who looked in excellent form in the same match is second favourite at 5/1 and then there's a big gap to Graeme Smith and Sanath Jayasuriya, at 16/1.

Part of the reason for the gap, of course, is that the likes of Sri Lanka, England, India and Pakistan have yet to make their tournament bows.

Gilchrist and Hayden, along with Ricky Ponting - another to fail against Zimbabwe - have slipped down the order to 20/1, next to Kevin Pietersen, the top-ranked England batsman who will get his chance against Zimbabwe on Thursday.

It still stands to reason that they have the maximum opportunity to score most of their side's runs and so Gilchrist and Hayden should not be written off just yet.

Brad Hodge, Luke Wright, Peter Fulton, Lou Vincent and Brendon McCullum are all 25/1 while keep an eye out for Sanath Jayasuriya at 33/1 and Virender Sehwag at 40/1 as it will only take one big early innings to see their prices slashed.