Career
Gibbs has scored two double centuries in his Test career, both contrasting innings. His first was an innings of 211 not out against New Zealand at Jade Stadium in 1999. His innings took 468 balls while his second double century, 228 against Pakistan came off just 240 balls. In that innings in Newlands, he reached a national record partnership of 368 with Graeme Smith. He has put on a further two 300-run opening stands with his captain, making them the only pair in Test history to break 300 on three occasions. He also holds the South African second wicket record, a partnership of 315* with Jacques Kallis.
Gibbs famously dropped a catch in a World Cup game against Australia in 1999, when he attempted to throw the ball up into the air in celebration before he had full control of it. The player that he dropped, Steve Waugh, went on to make a century and win the game for Australia, a victory which also gave the Australian side the momentum they required to go on and win the tournament. It was claimed at the time that, immediately after the dropped catch, Waugh had "sledged" Gibbs with the statement, "You've just dropped the World Cup", but, in his autobiography Out of My Comfort Zone, Waugh denies this. Waugh did state, however, that teammate Shane Warne had noticed that Gibbs had developed a habit of throwing the ball in the air prematurely after taking catches and instructed his colleagues not to leave the crease too quickly if they happened to be caught by Gibbs, just in case the situation that happened to Waugh should actually occur.
Gibbs is one of the only three batsmen in ODI history to score hundreds in three consecutive innings, the others being Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar both from Pakistan. On 3 October 2002, in Potchefstroom, his 153 was more than the rest of his team made altogether in a total of 301 for eight against the Bangladeshis, who were beaten decisively. On 6 October, in the 2nd ODI of that series, Gibbs had a chance to become the only batsman to score four hundreds in a row. South Africa was set the target of 155 for victory, and Gibbs fell just three runs short, finishing unbeaten on 97. With just six runs needed for victory, he had the strike on 96, but Alok Kapali bowled a legside wide that went for four and made his task almost impossible.
On 12 March 2006, Gibbs played a monumental innings in the 5th ODI against Australia, scoring 175 off just 111 balls leading South Africa to victory.he was batting with Graeme Smith after Boeta Dippenaar got out on 1(3)bowled by Nathan Bracken. This was the highest scoring One Day International match in history and his innings broke several batting records. It was the highest ever score made in an ODI against Australia, beating Robin Smith's effort in 1993. By bringing up his hundred off just 79 balls, he also brought up what was at the time the fastest ever ODI century against Australia. More importantly however, it was the fastest ever hundred by a South African batsman against any opposition, although the record would be broken later in the year by Mark Boucher. It was also the highest ever score by a batsman in South Africa. He scored 126 runs in boundaries, the most ever by a batsman. This record stood until 11 April 2011, when Shane Watson hit 150 runs in boundaries against Bangladesh.
In the match against the Netherlands in the group stage of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Gibbs hit six sixes in an over off the bowling of Daan van Bunge becoming the first player in One Day International history to do so. Ravi Shastri and Sir Garfield Sobers had previously achieved this feat in first-class cricket but to date no player has achieved this in Test Cricket. In doing so, he raised US$1 million for the Habitat for Humanity housing projects as part of a contest run by tournament sponsor Johnnie Walker. It is likely that his being awarded citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis was due to this feat. His six hitting form continued throughout the tournament and when he hit Jacob Oram into the stands during a Super Eight match he drew level with Australian batsman Ricky Ponting on 28 for most sixes in World Cup history.
Gibbs played for Glamorgan in the 2008 County Twenty20 tournament where he had a successful time; his highest score being 98 off just 52 balls in a losing game against Northants. He then signed up to play for Glamorgan for the 2009 County season, replacing Mark Cosgrove as the overseas player at the end of June. He also represented Glamorgan in two NatWest Pro40 League matches in that same season.
Gibbs then signed for Yorkshire Carnegie for the 2010 Friends Provident t20 tournament, where he was their overseas player, scoring 101 from 53 balls against Northamptonshire to achieve his first century in English T20 cricket.
His test career came to an end following the 2007/08 West Indies tour of South Africa.
In the 2011/12 season the Perth Scorchers teamed up gibbs for their campaign in Big Bash League. Gibbs done a brilliant job for the team to pick themselves in to the final. He was in the third position of highest run scorers. He scored 302 runs in 7 matches with an average of 43.14. His prominent batting helped Scorchers to participate in the champions League T20 season 2012 which will held in South Africa September this year.
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