BPL 2017, Eliminator Review: Chris Gayle blows Khulna Titans away

As they say cometh the hour, cometh the man. Chris Gayle might not be the same force he once was, he might not send shivers down the spines of the bowlers anymore, but the big man showed today that his experience can still be relied upon when it comes to big occasions as he turned back the clock in the eliminator of BPL 2017 and played one of the most devastating T20 innings to knock Khulna Titans out of the tournament.

It was old Gayle in action. He was at it right from the word go, something which he hasn’t managed to do in T20 cricket of late. In the last 4-5 years, he has been very reluctant to go big at the start and has preferred to wait before launching himself, but today he was in the zone and the Khulna bowlers bore the brunt of it.

He chased down the target of 168 set by Khulna almost all by himself having smashed 6 boundaries and a whopping 14 sixes in his innings of 126 for which he faced only 51 balls. It was his 19th hundred in T20 cricket.

Khulna batted first and weren’t able to get off to the start they were ideally looking for. They would have wanted one of the two openers to take the attack to the Rangpur bowlers in the powerplay, but that didn’t happen. Both Klinger and Nazmul were pretty sedate in their approach.

The skipper Mahmudullah came in at no. 4 and showed a bit of aggression as he raced to a score of 20 off just 5 deliveries, but he couldn’t continue that for long enough as he was dismissed at the same score and once he got out, Khulna’s run rate dropped down again.

Anamul Haque and Nicolas Pooran couldn’t get the boundaries away in the middle overs and even though Carlos Brathwaite smacked a few towards the end, Khulna could only get to 167 which was never going to be enough considering the power Rangpur possess in their line-up.

Though they also lost a couple of wickets early as Sohag Gazi and Brendon McCullum were shown the door inside the first 6 overs, but it didn’t make any difference in the end result. The West Indian veteran just kept smashing everything that came into his sight and made the game completely one-sided.

Rangpur completed the chase with 28 deliveries in hand which is enough to suggest how brutal Gayle’s knock was. There are no prizes for guessing who the man of the match was.

Brief Scores:

Khulna Titans: 167/6 (A Haque 29, N Pooran 28, Lasith Malinga 49/2)

Rangpur Riders: 171/2 in 15.2 overs (Chris Gayle 126 not out, Mohammad Mithun 30 not out, Jofra Archer 30/2)