Gayle storm carries Rangpur Riders to their first BPL title

Chris Gayle has underlined his reputation as cricket's most destructive batsman with a records-breaking unbeaten 146 and propelled Rangpur Riders to their maiden Bangladesh Premier League crown.

The West Indian batsman's pyrotechnics helped his team to an easy 57-run victory over defending champions Dhaka Dynamites in the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Gayle battered a slew of records en route to the incredible knock that lasted just 69 deliveries and rook Riders to 206 for 1. The blitzkrieg dented the Dynamites' confidence and the favourites could muster only 149 for 9 in their chase.

The Jamaican smashed 18 sixes during his knock to set a new record for the most sixes in a Twenty20 innings. He surpassed 11,000 runs in T20s and owned the highest individual score in a final of a T20 league.

Gayle is now the only batsman to have 20 hundreds under his belt in the shortest format of the game and hit more than 100 sixes in the BPL.

Dynamites captain Shakib Al Hasan sent the Riders in after winning the toss and the decision appeared to have been vindicated as his opponents made only 22/1 in 5 overs.

The skipper took out Johnson Charles, who hit maiden T20 century in the previous game, in the second over to reduce the Riders to 5 for 1 after 2 overs.

But in the sixth over, he dropped Gayle at extra cover who was 22 at the time. From then on, the innings exploded into life with Gayle hitting the bowlers out of the park with sheer disdain.

He paired with Brendon McCullum to rack up 201 in an unbroken second-wicket stand- the most for any wicket in the BPL. McCullum was content to play the second fiddle with an unbeaten 51 off 43.

The Riders duo piled up 64 runs in the last three overs of the innings as Gayle stepped on the gas with spectacular display of power-hitting.  He brought up his hundred in the 17th over, hitting five boundaries in the innings.

Demoralised by then, Dhaka Dynamites simply did not have firepower to force their way back in the game. They also kept losing early wickets with Mehedi Hasan Maruf falling in the first over and Joe Denly in the second for ducks. Elvin Lewis showed promise but departed on 15 in the fourth over.

Shakib (26) and Jahurul Islam, who made 50 off 38, had too steep a hill to climb with Shahid Afridi (8) and Kieran Pollard (5) falling cheaply.

They added 42 runs for the fifth wicket but Shakib’s fall meant they were five down inside the 9th over, a hopeless position from which the Dynamites could never recover.