Elton Chigumbura felt there was very little Zimbabwe could do to stop Chris Gayle as he powered to a double-century in West Indies' Cricket World Cup victory in Canberra.

Gayle recorded the first score of 200 or more in the competition's history on Tuesday, helping his side to a second Pool B victory with a sensational innings of 215 off 147 balls.

The opener was close to an early dismissal when he survived an lbw review in the first innings, and Chigumbura reflected on his side not having the rub of the green.

"It's unfortunate luck wasn't on our side today. I think on another day, he could have been given out," he told reporters.

"But you can't do anything about that. You just have to carry on with the game and make sure that you bowl well again.

"For a guy like Chris Gayle, he's a hard guy to bowl to when he starts hitting.

"Some of the plans you might try and put them into play, but maybe the way we bowled our execution wasn't right. I think the percentage was maybe 80 per cent out of 100 on execution.

"Like I said, it has cost us, and it's not the first game that we are giving too many runs at the end, again, as the two games that we played early on. We just have to go and work out on our last 15 overs."