Gayle's explosive ton takes Barisal to win

Barisal Burners 167 for 0 (Gayle 101*, Shehzad 56*) beat Sylhet Royals 165 for 4 (Trego 62, Kapali 56) by 10 wickets
Scorecard

Where there is a Twenty20 tournament to be played, there is Chris Gayle to smash a hundred. He scored his fifth Twenty20 century in the past year to take Barisal Burners to an easy win against Sylhet Royals in the opening game of the Bangladesh Premier League. Sylhet's total of 165 seemed like a competitive one, but Gayle made a mockery of it, smashing 10 sixes and seven fours in his 101 off 44 balls. Barisal were home in 13.1 overs.

Keeping Gayle company was Pakistan's Ahmed Shehzad, who scored 56 off 35 balls with nine fours and a six. Sylhet's Australian import, Brad Hogg, could not keep Gayle quiet, and went for 27 in his three overs. Hogg didn't have it as bad as two other Sylhet overseas players - Peter Trego and Scott Styris went for 23 and 27 in their only overs.

Trego had earlier helped Sylhet recover from a sluggish start to reach a decent total, with his 62. His 105-run partnership with Alok Kapali (56) formed the bulk of Sylhet's total.