Chris Gayle smashes own nine-year Twenty20 record by hitting 18 sixes... on his way to 146 not out

Chris Gayle has broken the record for the most sixes in a Twenty20 match plundering 18 in a score of 146 not out for the Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League.The West Indies batsman who scored an unbeaten 126 last week beat his previous record of 17 set when playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League in 2008.His 146 coming off only 69 balls also contained five fours and helped the Riders to a total of 206 for one off their 20 overs which they defended with ease winning by 57 runs. Chris Gayle pictured playing for West Indies against England in September has smashed his nine-year record for the most sixes in a Twenty20 match Gayle has a vast array of records from Twenty20 including highest score and most runsAfter the early dismissal of Johnson Charles Gayle and Brendon McCullum began enjoying themselves and the left-hander clubbed four consecutive sixes over the course of two overs before bringing up his 20th T20 century in the next over.He ended the innings in style clearing the ropes seven times off his last 11 balls including three off the last over from Shakib Al Hasan.Gayle s name is already etched into the T20 record books with the most centuries most career runs and the highest individual score - an unbeaten 175 in 2013.He also has the record for the fastest century coming off 23 balls and the joint record for the fastest half-century from only 12 deliveries. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next Alastair Cook reveals he is working harder than ever to... Michael Vaughan says England drinking culture is like... James Anderson breaks silence on Ben Duckett pouring a drink... Mitchell Marsh eyeing Australia return in third Ashes Test... Share this article Share 17 shares Chris Gayle has not been firing on all cylinders in the recent past as per his lofty standards. The big Jamaican had a best of 51 in his last eight innings in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2017. However the cricketing fraternity already knows a Gaylestorm can hit anytime anywhere without any warning and that is exactly what happened on Friday in Dhaka. Playing for Rangpur Riders Chris Gayle was at his destructive best smashing his 19th T20 hundred which came off just 45 balls. Gayle scored 126 runs in total off 51 balls including 14 sixes and six fours. Khulna batting first had posted 167 for six. But they were completely blown away by Gayle s innings as Rangpur overhauled the target in only 15.2 overs in the Eliminator. In the process Gayle scored his fourth ton in the BPL and became the first batsman smash 800 sixes in T20 cricket. This was the 14th time Gayle has hit 10 sixes or more in an inning in T20s. Brendon McCullum Evin Lewis and Dasun Shanaka are the joint next best -- with all three hitting 10 sixes or more in an inning a mere two times. Fans on Twitter were left speechless with Gayle s innings. 19th T20 century for @henrygayle Brilliant innings#BPLT20 Ahmed Kazim (@IamAhmedKazim) December 8 2017 He s the GOAT by far when it comes to t20 cricket. @henrygayle https://t.co/2kYaHCKuhq Pakistani (@Apassionateguy) December 8 2017 Most sixes in an innings of BPL- 14-Gayle 12-Gayle 11-Gayle 10-Gayle It s all about @henrygayle. What a cricketer! What a monster he is! #BPL17 Imran Hasan (@Imranhasan02) December 8 2017 Yeee...Mirpur has witnessed the explosive batting show of @henrygayle (126 from 51 balls).He has just smashed @khulnatitans and eliminated from #BPLSeason5 Good luck for second qualifier. Ariyan ohi (@AriyanOhi) December 8 2017 Just seen one of the finest and breath taking innings by none other than Chris Gayle! 126 not out off 51 balls for Rangpur Riderd 14 sixes included. @Official_BPLT20 Roshan Abeysinghe (@RoshanCricket) December 8 2017 Chris Gayle has more T20 100s than the following people have Test 100s: Crowe Laxman Sutcliffe Ganguly Richardson Vaughan Weekes Jayasuriya Compton Hobbs Kanhai Gilchrist Ridiculous stats #BPL2017 Oliver Jones (@oliverjones1988) December 8 2017 Earlier despite no batsmen going on to score big Khulna Titans managed to score 167 for six. Captain Mahmudullah and West Indian Craig Brathwaite played brilliant cameos to push their team to this total. Mahmudullah scored 20 off just six balls while Brathwaite smashed 25 off 9 balls. Things didn t go all Rangpur s way in the chase. Opener Sohag Gazi and Brendon McCullum scored 1 and 0 respectively to leave the Riders tottering at 25 for two. But Gayle decided to take matters in to his own hands and the rest as they say is history. Mohammad Mithun played a smart innings from the other end and had the best seat in the house as Gayle took the Khulna bowlers to the cleaners. The Bangladeshi batsman was 30 not out off 36 when the dust settled after Gayle s carnage as Rangpur marched to the next round with an eight-wicket win. In apparently responding to Indian cricket skipper Virat Kohli s recent anguished call about increased workload it is another matter that he may have been talking about the pointless limited-over series against Sri Lanka the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has timed its shift in focus as admirably as an innovative stroke while couching it like a classical cover drive. Virat Kohli celebrates the dismissal of New Zealand batsman Colin Munro during a T20 match in New Delhi. AFP A grand illusion is being created for the players to believe that their workload will come down just because the number of playing days has been brought down by 20 per cent in the next Future Tours Programme (FTP). On the contrary it is very evident that the FTP is being designed with the revenue from broadcast partners in mind. Trust the marketing wizards to give us spiel talking loudly about the number of days having come down from 390 to 306 and only whispering about the number of matches going up from 51 to 81. Anyone who is ready to pause for a moment and consider the numbers in perspective will be able to see that there is no real reduction in the players workload. And anyone who has travelled with the Indian team will quickly tell you that the amount of travel will go up correspondingly leaving the players little time to recover from any fatigue that they may face on account of more frequent travel. With fewer Tests scheduled over the next four years the days of cricket carnival pitching camp in a city for a week and more will become rare. Imagine the players having to take 81 pairs of flights in the period instead of the 51 pairs imagine them having to check-in and out of hotels 81 times instead of 51. Imagine them waking up in newer cities more often each year than they have thus far when Test cricket held its own including over the past decade when Twenty20 (T20) cricket has become the proverbial camel in the Arab s tent. Curiously the BCCI mandarins including the Committee of Administrators (COA) Chairman Vinod Rai armed themselves with a defence that centres around a recent discussion with Kohli former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (who doesn t play Test cricket anymore) and Head Coach Ravi Shastri. It is a good wager that while the trio was told about the likelihood of the number of days of international cricket coming down little mention was made of the rise in the number of limited-over matches each year. It perhaps means that the durability of a lot of Test records may be strengthened with such a tactical shift in focus towards limited-over cricket. Yet there is no doubt that the economy revolving around cricket will benefit from the increase in number of matches. Clearly the official broadcasters can benefit from having to sell more matches but fewer Tests. They are being guaranteed more playing days than perhaps they would have in times when not all Tests last five days. The early warnings were available when Star Sports acquired Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for a mind-boggling sum of Rs 16 347.5 crore over five years. In justifying such a bid Star India CEO Uday Shankar had told Indian Express in September this year that broadcasters would kill each other to bid for Test rights if the stadiums would be magically full . Test cricket has a two-fold problem. Most of the Tests people find meaningless. Even today when India and Pakistan play or England and Australia play people get excited about it because there s a context. Most of Test cricket there s no context. Second problem with Test cricket is that there s too much of it Uday Shankar had said. The new FTP is a reaction to such number-crunching that knows no old-fashioned emotion. It could also be BCCI s response to the growing threats such as European football leagues NBA and leagues of other Indian football badminton and even kabaddi. Evidently BCCI does not see itself as the conscience keeper of Test cricket around the world. You would have expected the International Cricket Council (ICC) which had restricted the number of T20s in bilateral series to protect its own ICC World T20 speak up for Test cricket. But there is word that it has opened a window for IPL. The dwindling number of Test cricket aficionados will be left lamenting the rationing of the ultimate form of the game. They may perhaps have to look around fervently to see if there is some wonderful meaning and context to the bilateral limited-overs series. Of course all cricket is essentially a contest between willow and leather and die-hard fans of Test cricket will have to come around to look for similarities in the ebbs and flows of the limited-overs game. And for cricket s grammar to change. Published Date: Dec 13 2017 08:45 am | Updated Date: Dec 13 2017 08:45 am Tags : #Cricket #Ftp #Icc #India cricket #Ipl #Sportstracker #Star india #T20 cricket #Test cricket #Uday shankar