Rangpur Riders lift maiden BPL title
Gayle steals the show with marauding ton
Sports Reporter
Chris Gayle smashed a marauding 69-ball 146 not out as Rangpur Riders clinched their maiden BPL T20 title with a crushing 57-run win over Dhaka Dynamites, who were in quest to defend the title for their second straight trophy yesterday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. As he is used to do, the Jamaican big-hitter, popularly known as King of T20 broke several records on the way to his second ton of the meet, that not only demolished mighty Dhaka Dynamites but also completed Rangpurs fairytale journey in the tournament.
Coming off in the last-four stage as the last team, Rangpur won three knock out matches in a row, in which Gayle was instrumental in two matches, including the most crucial final.
Gayles unbeaten 69-ball 146, studded with five fours and 18 sixes, complemented by Brendon McCullums calculative 43-ball 51 not out steered the side to a daunting 206 for one in 20 overs and that was too much to handle as Dhaka Dynamites tasted a top order collapse to be finally restricted to 149 for nine.
The 18 sixes hit by the Universe Boss was the highest in an innings, eclipsing his 17 sixes in an IPL match in 2017. The 146 not out was his second century in this season, and fifth in BPL. It was also the highest individual BPL score, bettering his 126 not out against Khulna Titans just three days ago. And it was his 20th T20 century overall. He also completed 1,000
runs in BPL when he was on 11, also the first to reach 11,000 T20 runs in the process. He is the fastest to reach 1,000 BPL runs in 26 matches and boasted the highest average and strike rate. Last but not the least, he made a century of sixes in BPL too on the way to his 18 sixes.
Dhaka, bidding for their second straight title, paid the price of dropping the catch of Gayle, who was on 22. Captain Shakib Al Hasan was responsible for the grave mistakes as he witnessed then, how Gayle flayed his bowlers all around the park to create record after records.
Shakibs decision to send Rangpur in batting looked justified when he bowled a maiden-wicket over in the first over of the innings and then made a suffocating environment for Rangpur to score.
Despite having players like Gayle and Brendon McCullum in the crease, Rangpurs score after five overs was a mere 22 for one. However, in the sixth over when Shakib shelled Chris Gayles catch at extra cover off Mosaddek Hossain Saikats bowling, it turned out to be different story altogether as Gayle gained the momentum in a way that Dhaka had no chance to comeback in the match.
McCullum played a perfect foil to Gayle. He concentrated on giving Gayle strike most of the time, playing with singles just. The trick worked nicely as Gayle scored freely to drive the innings. McCullum was not out on 51 off 43, smacking four fours and three sixes. They finally shared undefeated 201 runs partnership, comfortably the highest in any wicket in BPL history.
Dhakas mistakes to field first and then drop the catch of Gayle seemed to have gottem the better of the team as they were thrown away from the match inside fifth overs, being reeled at 29 for four. When the big hitter likes of Evin Lewis, Joe Denly and Keiron Pollard were dismissed in the first five overs, the match looked to be virtually over.
After Mashrafe Bin Mortaza struck in the first over with the wicket of Mehedi Maruf, Sohag Gazi joined the party to dismissed Joe Denly (0) and Evin Lewis (15) in his consecutive two overs. Rubel Hossain then got rid of Pollard after which Shakib and Jahurul Islam Omee injected life into the match suddenly with big hitting prowess.
However Nazmul Islam Opu took out Shakib for 26, leaving Dhaka 71 for five in ninth over, needing a miracle to clinch the trophy. The likes of Sunil Narine and Shahid Afridi couldnt make that miracle happen and the second straight trophy of Dhaka remained elusive.
Rangpur captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza received Taka two crore as prize money as the champions team. On the other hand Dhaka got Tk 75 lakh as runners-up. Chris Gayle earned the distinction of earning the man of the final as well as man of the tournament awards. Incidentally, Mashrafe won the championship as captain for the fourth time. He won the first two as captain of Dhaka Gladiators and then he led Comilla from front to bag his third, and finally the fourth this season with Rangpur Riders.
