Gayle's dubious distinction

What a great leveler this game of cricket is!

However Chris Gayle learnt it the hard way in the St. Lucia Test. Gayle was the top-scorer for West Indies in both the innings of the first Test at St. John's -- no mean achievement by any yardstick.

In the St. Lucia Test, Gayle got an entry into another list, but surely the one he would not like to see his name in.
 
Gayle was the first wicket of the day to fall, while the fourth for West Indies in their first innings, when he nicked Kumble to keeper Dhoni.

His wicket opened the floodgates for West Indies and from a score of 106 for three, the hosts were all-out for a paltry 215 conceding a first innings lead of 373 to India.

As Dravid promptly enforced the follow-on, Gayle was the first to depart giving wicketkeeper Dhoni another catch -- this time off the bowling of Pathan. In doing so Gayle achieved the dubious distinction of getting out twice on the same day of a Test.
 
Although there have been 41 such instances from the West Indies in the past, only 11 involved the openers. Interestingly it was the third time a West Indies opener suffered this fate in a home Test and all the three occasions were against India!

Openers getting out twice on the same day against India