Gujarat Lions cuts Supergiants to size
OVER THE ROPES: Brendon McCullum clobbered three sixes and three
boundaries in his knock of 49 off 31 balls that set the tone for Gujarat
Lions's easy win.
Home team registers a convincing seven-wicket win to make it two out of two
Gujarat Lions refused to be intimidated by the target
of 164 set on a wicket the ground staff felt was overused in the season
and would not really facilitate authentic strokeplay and reckless
hitting.
The pitch had not received a drop of water
in the last two days and the coarse surface was predicted to bring the
spinners into play in a big way.
But Lions’ two
fearless openers — Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum — not given to bring
the pitch into the equation, blasted shots off R.P. Singh, Ishant
Sharma and leg-spinner M. Ashwin in spectacular fashion as Gujarat Lions
surprised Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) by seven wickets. The win took
the team to the top of the Vivo-IPL-9 points table. Finch and McCullum,
between them, had 10 boundaries and five sixes.
Spellbinding parts
There
were many spellbinding parts to the engaging tussle between the
“offshoots” of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals at a
nearly-packed house at the Khanderi Village Stadium here.
The
20th over duel between RPS captain M.S. Dhoni and Lions’ hero of the
first match Dwayne Bravo held everyone’s attention, as the most
celebrated Indian captain outwitted the smart West Indian to notch up 20
runs — 4, 2, 2, 6, 2, 4 — and helped his team recover lost ground.
On
its way back to the dug-out at the end of the first session, the home
team may have wondered if had let slip the grasp it had on the match
after Bravo, leg-spinner Pravin Tambe and left-arm spinner Ravindra
Jadeja had struck blows after the half-way mark. At that stage, it
appeared that Dhoni’s 10-ball cameo would turn out to be a game-changer.
After
being clobbered by Kevin Pietersen and Faf du Plessis for two sixes —
16 runs came off the last PowerPlay over sent down by Bravo — Lions’
captain Suresh Raina did not summon the West Indian to bowl again until
the 14th over when Supergiants looked poised to take off at 112 for two.
With his reputation rocketing after the four for 22
at Mohali, Bravo won a one-on-one contest with Pietersen. Soon Tambe
won his battle with du Plessis and then Jadeja got rid of Steve Smith,
who holed out to James Faulkner at deep cover.
Rousing start
A
PowerPlay score of 57, in which Ajinkya Rahane played his part, gave a
rousing start to RPS’s innings. du Plessis and Pietersen went after
left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati who was just playing his second IPL match
in two years. Then Pietersen turned around to put away Bravo’s first
ball over backward square-leg for a six.
The
second-wicket pair added 86 off 61 balls before Bravo, bowling his
second over, with a clever change of pace outfoxed Pietersen. The fall
of the former England player’s wicket saw the Lions roar back into the
match.
No comments:
Post a Comment