A T20 run-fest, laden with a record number of sixes, lit up the Caribbean Premier League 2019 as St Kitts and Nevis Patriots clinched their first win of the season with an astonishing 242-run chase.
Strong contributions from Patriots’ top four nullified Chris Gayle’s 22nd T20 ton, as the Carlos Brathwaite-led team reached the target with seven balls to spare. In all, 37 sixes were hit, the joint-most for a T20 match, level with the 2018 Afghanistan Premier League game between Balkh Legends and Kabul Zwanan.
WHAT A GAME! WHAT A NIGHT! UNBELIEVABLE SCENES!! #CPL19 #Biggestpartyinsport #Recordbreaking #SKPvJT pic.twitter.com/CU6cQDqE7w
— CPL T20 (@CPL) September 11, 2019
For Patriots, Devon Thomas top-scored with a blazing 40-ball 71, even as his opening partner Evin Lewis completed the fastest fifty of CPL, off just 17 balls. A middle-order collapse saw them lose three wickets for one run, but Fabian Allen’s blitz towards the end [37 in 15 balls] gave the Patriots their first win in three games.
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Earlier, Gayle slammed his 22nd century in T20s, giving him 14 more than Michael Klinger, who has the next best ton tally in T20 cricket. He reached his century in 54 balls, and finished with 62-ball 116, hitting seven fours and 10 sixes. With ample help from Chadwick Walton, who made a 36-ball 73, Gayle lifted the side to 241, the highest total in CPL history.
The record was obliterated in the next 18.5 overs, as Patriots completed the second-highest T20 chase of all time, and the fourth-best T20 total for a side batting second.
