Gayle’s historic ton hands Rangpur maiden BPL title

DHAKA: Chris Gayle single-handedly knocked the wind out of Dhaka Dynamites’ sails and helped Rangpur Riders win the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) title with a 57-run victory in the final at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday.

Gayle smashed several records on his way to an unbeaten 146 off 69 as Riders posted 206 for 1. The absolute decimation of the bowling attack by the opener was enough for to dent the confidence of Dynamites as they could manage just 149 for 9 in response.

Gayle hit 18 sixes during his innings - the most in a Twenty20 innings. He crossed the 11,000-run mark in T20s and also posted the highest individual score in a final of a T20 League. Gayle also became the only batsman to have 20 T20 centuries and crossed the 100 sixes mark in BPL.

Shakib al Hasan, the Dynamites captain, will probably rue two instances in the game. He decided to send in Riders in first in the all-important clash and picked up the pressure of chasing in the final. The second came in the sixth over when he dropped Gayle at extra cover. Gayle was on just 22 then and decided to send the bowlers on a leather hunt as he toyed with whatever challenge was thrown at him.

He also found the perfect partner in Brendon McCullum. Even though they lost Johnson Charles, the centurion in the last game, in the second over with just five on the board, Gayle and McCullum collaborated to score 201 for the second win. McCullum was happy to play second fiddle and scored an unbeaten 51 off 43. He even refused a single on the penultimate ball as Gayle went on to tonk the last delivery of the first innings for a six and better his previous record of 17 sixes for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in the Indian Premier League. Riders went on to collect 64 runs in the last three overs of the innings and leave their opposition gasping.

As it the case on most occasion after such tremendous effort, Dynamites were left with little fight in them. Mehedi Maruf fell in the first over while Joe Denly followed him in the second over - both batsmen failed to open their account, and Dynamites had two runs on the board after first two overs for the loss of two wickets.

Brief scores: Rangpur Riders 206/1 in 20 overs (Chris Gayle 146*, Brendon McCullum 51*). Dhaka Dynamites 149/9 in 20 overs (Jahurul Islam 50; Nazmul Islam 2-8).