Chris Gayle having his legs slightly apart with the bat over his head in his follow through and watching the ball sail over the long-on fielder was one of the most enduring images of BPL 2017.<\/p>\n
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Gayle’s relentless assault – a record 146* off 69 balls – razed defending champions and pre-tournament favourites Dhaka Dynamites in the title clash. Gayle’s 18 sixes – the most in a T20 innings – was a methodical assault, which thrilled the packed Mirpur crowd.<\/p>\n
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He cherished his fifth BPL hundred and 20th overall in T20 cricket, calling it one of his best T20 knocks. “It is a big game, a big occasion to actually stand out and get a century in a final,” Gayle said. “You actually look back and say well done. You tap yourself on the back. It is a winning effort as well, which makes it more special for me. So I am glad that we came out on top. I would put it in the top five [among T20 centuries], certainly for the occasion as well. I will have to reflect where this takes place. It is right up there.”<\/p>\n
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Gayle said that Rangpur Riders looked to bat deep into the innings, especially after they had lost previous match-winner Johnson Charles in the second over. “They [Dhaka Dynamites’ started well. We lost Charles a bit early,” Gayle said. “We had to give ourselves a chance to bat as deep as possible. It was important for one of us to bat right through the innings. It actually set the momentum for us.”<\/p>\n
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Gayle said keeping Dhaka’s key bowler Sunil Narine at bay was also part of Rangpur’s plan. “It is a good wicket, once you are set on it,” he said. You can score a bit freely. It wasn’t the best, fully 100 % batting conditions. They had quality bowlers. We didn’t let their best bowlers get wickets.<\/p>\n
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“Narine is their key bowler. Once you lose Charles early, you play according to the situation, use a bit of experience. Know when to go, when to hold back.” Gayle also credited Brendon McCullum with whom he added an unbroken 201 – the highest stand for any wicket in the BPL.<\/p>\n
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Chris Gayle having his legs slightly apart with the bat over his head in his follow through and watching the ball sail over the long-on fielder was one of the most enduring images of BPL 2017. Gayle’s relentless assault – a record 146* off 69 balls – razed defending champions and pre-tournament favourites Dhaka Dynamites in the title clash. Gayle’s 18 sixes – the most in a T20 innings – was a methodical assault, which thrilled the packed Mirpur crowd. He cherished his fifth BPL hundred and 20th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12857,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12855\/revisions\/12857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}