02, Jun 2016 the Lions Show in Saurashtra IPL Debutant Gujarat
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02, Jun 2016 The Lions show in Saurashtra IPL debutant Gujarat Lions almost scripted a fairy tale, they lost in the virtual semifinal, but they won many hearts not only in Rajkot but everywhere they played, but undoubtedly the foundation was laid at the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) Stadium in Khanderi. A look at all their five matches which they played in one of the most magnificent stadium in the world… Match No 1 Lions off to a great start The home team started their campaign in Rajkot with a crushing seven-wicket win against Rising Pune Supergiants. It was billed as the match between MS Dhoni versus his boys as most of the Gujarat Lions players this year are former Dhoni’s team mates when he was leading the now disbanded Chennai Super Kings team. Batting first Supergiants looked set for a score in excess of 180, but a superb display of defensive bowling towards the end turned the contest in Lions' favour. Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum then effectively killed the game by pillaging 62 in the Powerplay, during their chase of 164. MS Dhoni had pulled back some momentum for Supergiants by contributing to a 20-run last over in the first innings, but his bowlers threw it all away. Loose deliveries stacked up, and the Lions openers duly dispatched them. Four fours and two sixes off the seamers, RP Singh and Ishant Sharma, meant Dhoni turned to M Ashwin in the last over of the Powerplay, but Finch took the legspinner for four fours in a 19-run over. Finch then hit medium-pacer Rajat Bhatia for two sixes over long-on in the seventh over, but holed out to square leg in the ninth, for 50 - his second half-century of the season. By then, though, the damage had been done. McCullum continued to latch on to wayward bowling, as the spinners failed to extract much from the patchy surface. Supergiants' day was summed up when Dhoni missed a routine stumping with McCullum well short of his crease after R Ashwin had yorked the batsman. After McCullum top-edged an attempted pull to cover off Ishant, the captain Suresh Raina and Dwayne Bravo produced cameos as Lions reached the target with two overs to spare. Supergiants' batting was a tale of two halves. Faf du Plessis and Ajinkya Rahane continued from where they left off against Mumbai Indians, using exquisite timing to plunder five fours in the first 21 balls. After Pravin Tambe trapped Rahane lbw in the fourth over, Kevin Pietersen and du Plessis ensured a productive Powerplay with a bunch of boundaries. The pair added 30 off 13 balls to end the Powerplay at 57 for 1, with du Plessis being particularly aggressive down the ground. Even as the field spread, the boundary was found regularly and their stand stretched to 83. But just when Supergiants looked to accelerate, Bravo brought out his slower balls to stall the charge. He bowled four of them in succession in the 14th over, the last of which forced Pietersen to drag on. Suddenly, one wicket brought three as the spinners found their lengths. Ravindra Jadeja, who has played most of his domestic cricket at this ground, varied his pace effectively to concede just four off the 17th and 19th overs to finish with figures of 2 for 18. The situation may have been a lot worse had Dhoni not given Supergiants a late surge - he took Bravo for a six, two fours and three twos in the last over. In the end, Supergiants' 163 was nowhere near enough as they tasted their first defeat in the IPL. Brief scores: Rising Pune Supergiants 163 for 5 (Du Plessis 69, Pietersen 37, Jadeja 2-18) lost to Gujarat Lions 164 for 3 (Finch 50, McCullum 49, M Ashwin 2-31) by 7 wickets. Match No 2 It’s a David, Dhawan blockbuster It was David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan’s brilliant batting that paved the way for Sunrisers Hyderabad's 10-wicket win over the home team in their den. Warner, who slammed 74 off 48, combined with Shikhar Dhawan, who struck a fifty of his own, for an unbroken 137-run opening partnership after his bowlers, led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar's 4 for 29, kept Lions to 135 for 8. Warner began the chase with two fours off Dale Steyn, who was playing his first match of this IPL, and kicked into high gear with three fours off Praveen Kumar in the fourth over. Spin didn't stem the run-flow either as Warner cut and pulled Suresh Raina to the boundary. The Sunrisers captain brought up his half-century in 29 balls, by which time his team needed less than a run a ball for victory. Dhawan took the opportunity to bide his time and recover some of his form. He wasn't always fluent, but a paddle sweep off Dwayne Bravo in the 12th over changed that. At one point 25 off 24, Dhawan completed his half-century in 40 balls and though he didn't indulge in much celebration, he did so a couple of balls later. Warner sealed the victory with six overs to spare and time was ripe for a twirl of the 'tache. That Lions were tied down, despite Raina's 75 off 51, was Bhuvneshwar's doing. He swung the new ball handsomely, as Aaron Finch found out in the first over when his stumps were splayed by an indipper, and when he couldn't get movement through the air, his mixture of slower balls were hard to put away on a large outfield. Bhuvneshwar took three wickets in the final over of the Lions innings, including Raina's, to cap Sunrisers' strong comeback. Mustafizur Rahman played a hand in Lions' slowdown as well. He was saved for the final six overs again and still gave away only one boundary - when Warner misfielded at long-on. The Bangladesh seamer finished with 1 for 19, the mystery of his cutters no closer to being solved. Sunrisers also benefited from part-time offspinner Deepak Hooda and left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma rushing through five overs and picking up two wickets. Lions, who had raced to 50 for 1 in the Powerplay, only managed 85 runs in the remaining 14 overs. Raina eased his way back to form, scoring his first T20 fifty in 31 innings. On display were his typical shots: lofted drives on the bent knee, firm pushes through cover and wristy flicks off the pads. But the other Lions batsmen struggled for timing. McCullum mis-hit a slog sweep to deep midwicket and fell for 18 off 17 balls, Dinesh Karthik was dismissed for 8 off a full toss and Dwayne Bravo, also on 8, picked out deep square leg after being deceived by a slower ball. Bhuvneshwar's triple-strike in the final over meant Lions lost seven wickets for 79 runs, and slipped to their first defeat. Brief scores: Gujarat Lions 135 for 8 (Raina 75, Bhuvneshwar 4-29) lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 137 for no loss (Warner 74*, Dhawan 53*) by 10 wickets Match No 3 Rajkot witness Kohli’s magic, but Lions have the last laugh Virat Kohli’s brilliance was in full flow but it Dinesh Karthik and Brendon McCullum’s calculated batting gave the home team their second win in three home games in their den. Kohli is a calculating batsman. It shows in the way he plays pure cricketing shots and maximises their impact by picking gaps. He was furious at himself after scoring 80 in Royal Challengers Bangalore's victory two days ago because he thought he should have used 10 balls fewer. A man so in tune with his game insisted he never thought he would score a hundred today. But he did; his first in T20 cricket, achieved by hitting a wide yorker for four off the final ball of the innings. Thereafter, he wouldn't have thought his team would lose. But they did, after putting up 180 - a total Kohli thought was 25 runs above par. There are not many batsmen who can go toe-to-toe with the Royal Challengers captain. He averages 110 and strikes at 141 in Twenty20s this year. So Gujarat Lions had to work together, and work as perfectly as possible. The Rajkot pitch was slow and strokeplay wasn't particularly easy. With the new ball, however, you can always bank on runs. Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith, who replaced Dale Steyn belted 72 in the Powerplay - a record for this season - to provide a fine start to the chase. Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik built a sensible half-century stand - using the long boundaries at the SCA stadium to scamper twos to keep the asking rate in check. Karthik, who was 28 off 26 when that partnership was broken in the 16th over, accelerated to 50 off 39 and was unbeaten when the winning runs were struck with three balls to spare. Royal Challengers had a chance to remove Karthik in the 18th over, Kane Richardson deceived the him with a slower ball but was unable to hold on to the return catch. An equation of 26 off 16 balls could have been taxing on a new batsman. As such, the set batsman Karthk kept finding the gaps, a fresh Ravindra Jadeja made sure the twos kept coming and the chasing team won for a 16th time in 19 IPL matches this year. After opting to bat, Royal Challengers lost Shane Watson early when he skied an offcutter from Dhawal Kulkarni to Jadeja running in from sweeper cover.