It was Caribbean batting giant Chris Gayle who created the stage for Rangpur Riders for winning their maiden BPL trophy.

Gayle became the first man on the planet to have 20 T20 hundreds as the belligerent left-hander smashed an unbeaten 146 off just 69 balls for Dhaka Dynamites in the Bangladesh Premier League final against Rangpur Riders. His knock helped Dhaka post a mammoth 206/1.

In response Dhaka Dynamites could able to post 149 in 20 overs.

Gayle had also hit a hundred – unbeaten 126 – against the Khulna Titans in the Eliminator.

In the all important final against Rangpur, Dhaka rode on Gayle’s explosive start to put the opposition under pressure. The attacking opener hit fifty off just 33 balls and went into a destructive mode in the second half of his innings. This was his 20th, yes 20th, 100-plus knock in the shortest format. He has also scored two hundreds in T20I for West Indies, reports indianexpress.com.

After losing Johnson Charles in the second over of the match, Gayle didn’t let pressure come on his team as he continued in the manner he knows best – attack. Runs came thick and fast and fielders were on leather hunt throughout their time out in the middle. More than the fielders, the spectators too were kept busy as the big man hit as many as 18 towering sixes during his 69-ball knock.

The 18 sixes take his T20 six count to a staggering 819. It will take some doing for other players to catch up with Gayle’s run in the shortest format. The left-hander averages 40, strike-rate nears the 150 mark and he has 20 hundreds and 67 fifties. These are the kind of numbers a batsman would dream of even in the fifty-over format. He has already played 320 matches in the T20 format and is looking good to play atleast  a fifty more.