West Indians light up BPL

Pakistani Junaid Khan becomes top wicket-taker but day belonged to Caribbean stars

It was a day for West Indian cricketers as several of the Caribbean stars lit up the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

Big-hitting West Indies star Chris Gayle started the proceedings with a 30-ball 44 that guided Chittagong Vikings to 142-8.

Bangladesh left-handed opener Tamim Iqbal anchored the innings with 51 off 46 balls but there was precious little support elsewhere, with the third highest scorer being Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik (14 off 12 balls).



West Indian medium-pacer Kesrick Williams starred for their opponents Rajshahi Kings with the ball, returning incredible figures of 4-11 in four overs.

In reply, World T20-winning captain Darren Sammy scored an unbeaten 55 off just 27 balls to guide his side to the target, despite Kings looking down and out at one stage with six wickets down and just 57 on the board.

In the other match, it was the Andre Russell-show as the Dhaka Dynamites all-rounder took the game away from Khulna Titans with both bat and ball.



Russell first hammered 46 off 25 balls to take his side to 140-8, being provided invaluable support from compatriot and fellow all-rounder Dwayne Bravo (23 off 22 balls).

It was not all West Indies though as Pakistan left-arm pacer Junaid Khan claimed figures of 4-24 for Khulna to go top of the wicket-takers’ chart for this year’s BPL with 20 scalps to his name.

Russell and Bravo were at it again with the ball as well, with Russell claiming three wickets in his fours overs while Bravo took three in 2.2 overs.