BPL 2017 final Review: Gaylestorm helps Rangpur Riders clinch title

Whenever you play a big tournament, what you want as a team is to peak at the right time and that’s exactly what the Rangpur Riders did in BPL 2017. They were not the most in-form side coming into the playoffs, but they brought their A game out when it mattered and absolutely thrashed the top 3 teams one after the other to clinch the title.

The final against Dhaka Dynamites turned out to be a completely one-sided affair. Rangpur batted first and courtesy Chris Gayle who smashed his second century of the tournament, they put up a score of over 200 on the board which was about 20 runs above par considering the slow nature of the wicket.

On a surface where nobody found the strokeplay easy, Gayle was in a different league. The confidence of the innings that he had played in the first game of the playoffs was clearly showing as he was willing to go after the bowling from the very first ball.

Although Johnson Charles, the centurion of the last game, got out early, Gayle had a huge partnership with the former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum for the second wicket as the pair remained unbeaten till the end of the 20th over.

The extent of Gayle’s dominance can be understood from the fact that out 201 runs scored in the partnership that he stitched with McCullum, the latter’s contribution was only 51. The Windian struck a total of 18 sixes in his innings of 146 which is the world record in terms of the no. of sixes hit by a batsman in a single game in T20 Cricket.

Despite the fact that Dhaka had the services of some ferocious power hitters too, it was a very difficult chase in the second innings with the surface getting even slower. And to make matters worse, Dhaka lost 4 wickets inside the power play which virtually put them out of the game.

Jahurul Islam, the wicketkeeper-batsman, and Shakib Al Hasan, the skipper, fought for a brief period of time with a 42-run stand for the 5th wicket, but that was that. Once that partnership was broken, Dhaka went downhill quickly and at the end remained 57 runs short of the target. Jahurul completed his half century off 38 balls, but it was of no avail.

Brief Scores:

Rangpur Riders: 206/1 in 20 overs (Chris Gayle 146, Brendon McCullum 51, Shakib Al Hasan 26/1)

Dhaka Dynamites:149/9 in 20 overs (Jahurul Islam 50, Shakib Al Hasan 26, Nazmul Islam 8/2)