Sylhet Thunder West Indies batsman Andre Fletcher is the first centurion in the special edition of the Bangabandhu-Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). He slammed the credible hundred against Khulna Tigers at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram yesterday.

The thunder came to bat after losing the flip on Sagorika’s batting paradise, where 200-plus runs became a regular matter in BPL. Andre Fletcher and his compatriot Johnson Charles raised storm with their bats after losing Abdul Mazid cheaply. The way two stalwart batsmen started their onslaught on Tigers bowlers, it was obviously predicted that something special is going to be held. Both the batsmen hit the bowlers with ease and tried to surpass each other.

At one stage, Andre Fletcher was batting 65, Johnson Charles then was on 84. Normally, all the perception was around Charles, who will be the first centurion of the Bangabandhu-BPL. But Charles was trapped by pacer Shohidul Islam leg-before when he was 90, 10 runs away from the credible century.

Of course, Khulna captain Mushfiqur Rahim had a chance to be the first centurion of the 2019 BPL but he fell four runs shy of his century. The wicketkeeper-batsman struck 96 against Rajshahi Royals. He went ahead Ravi Bopara for a big shot in a bid to make century but the ball hit an edge of the bat that produced a skier and Shoaib Malik took it that dashed his hopes of making first century in BPL.

The duo cobbled together a brilliant 150 runs for the second-wicket stand before Johnson Charles’ departure. And then, Andre Fletcher drifted toward his century after notching up his fifty from 25 balls. He completed his fifty with a boundary when he smoked Robiul Haque in the second delivery of his second over.

Fletcher then inserted his name in the BPL centurion list as a centurion when brought up his century from 53 balls with a single following a boundary from Mohammad Amir’s last over. This was 19th century in overall BPL.

Fletcher is the 10th overseas batsmen to strike the hundred in BPL but he is the fifth centurion as a West Indies batsman after Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Evin Lewis and Johnson Charles. Chris Gayle among the West Indies batsmen hammered five centuries alone in BPL while Evin Lewis slammed twice.     

Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Ashraful, Sabbir Rahman and Tamim Iqbal among the local batsmen have a record of century in BPL.

However, Ahmed Shehzad (Pakistan), Laurie Evans (England), Alex Hales (England), Rilee Rossouw (South Africa) and AB de Villiers (South Africa) had also clouted hundred in BPL.