Chris Gayle took very little time to stamp his authority but Tamim Iqbal outscored him to score a half-century leading Chittagong Vikings to a nine-wicket win over Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League in Dhaka on Sunday.
Gayle made 40 with four sixes before Tamim hit an unbeaten 62 as Vikings reached 128-1 in 16 overs after restricting Riders to 124-6 for their fourth successive win, which also brought the side strongly in the race.
Off-spinner Sohag Gazi gave Gayle some hard time in the middle coming to open the bowling charismatic Jamaican did not take long time to come out of his shackles and dictate the game on his own terms.
Sohag troubled Gayle enormously during West Indies’ tour to Bangladesh in 2012 and bearing that in mind Gayle was somewhat subdued initially before hitting the off-spinner two successive sixes in the seventh over of the innings.
Anyone willing to see the intriguing battle between Gayle and Shahid Afridi was also left satisfied as Gayle hit Afridi his two other sixes off successive balls before the Riders’ Pakistani all-rounder ended his onslaught.
Gayle’s third attempt against Afridi turned into a top edge that Anwar Ali gladly accepted at short cover.
Unlike Gayle, Tamim, who played 48 balls, was a cool customer as he completed his third fifty in the tournament with a six and four off successive Arafat Sunny delivery before he ended the game in style with two consecutive fours off Liam Dawson.
Earlier, skipper Soumya Sarkar scored highest 26 runs in stop-start Riders’ innings as quite a few batsmen got the start but none could make a big innings for the side.
Mohammad Nabi finished with 2-31 to join Khulna Titans’ Shafiul Islam as tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 16 wickets while Taskin Ahmed also grabbed 2-25.
Brief Scores
Rangpur Riders 124-6 in 20 overs (Soumya 26, Shahzad 21, Anwar 20 not out; Taskin 2-25, Nabi 2-31) v Chittagong Vikings 128-1 in 16 overs (Tamim 62 not out, Gayle 40)
Result: Chittagong Vikings won by 9 wickets.
Man of the match: Tamim Iqbal (Chittagong Vikings)