Gayle is one of a handful of players who would not shirk from chasing 419 and the 39-year-old Jamaican picked up Buttler’s baton with a ton of his own.
He teed off immediately, clattering Chris Woakes for five sixes in nine balls.
Stokes then gave up two fours and two sixes from his first four balls. Things did not get any better in a ragged four-over spell that contained full tosses, wides and even an accidental beamer.
Wood was fighting a lone resistance, removing John Campbell and Shai Hope with the new ball and returning in his second spell to add Darren Bravo and Shimron Hetmyer in the same over.
But Gayle ticked off a shopping list of targets — 50 up in 32 balls, a 10,000th one-day run and then his hundred in 55 balls — but was fatigued by the time Stokes took his stumps on 162.
He became the second West Indies player to score 10,000 runs in One-day internationals after Brian Lara. Gayle also became the first player to hit 500 international sixes.