JOIN USLions return to winning ways
Dinesh Karthik led the way with a fluent half-century as Gujarat Lions snapped their three-match losing streak to reclaim the top spot with a comfortable five-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL T20 cricket match, here on Sunday.
Chasing 159 on a slow Eden surface, the duo of Dwayne Smith (27) and Brendon McCullum (29) handed Lions a perfect launchpad with 42 from 5.3 overs.
The duo fell in space of 15 runs when Shakib Al Hasan and Piyush Chawala took one each but it was sheer elegance from wicketkeeper batsman Karthik who scored a 29-ball 51 that had eight fours and a six to set up the chase.
After Karthik was stumped, Aaron Finch’s hit 29 from 10 balls (3x4, 2x6) before being run out. Ravindra Jadeja sealed the chase with two overs to spare as he launched a six over long-on.
The Lions thus returned to winning ways after a hat-trick of defeats as they jumped to the top of the table with 14 points from 11 matches, while KKR were pushed to the third behind Sunrisers Hyderabad on net run rate.
Earlier, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan bailed Kolkata Knight Riders out from a disastrous start to post a fighting 158 for four after being invited to bat.
KKR were Stuttering at 24 for 4 inside the Powerplay overs with a splendid seam bowling display by Praveen Kumar (2/19) and Dhawal Kulkarni (1/3), but Pathan and Shakib put on a record unbroken partnership of 134 runs to stage a remarkable recovery.
It was highest fifth-wicket stand in IPL history.
Shakib struck a 49-ball 66 with four sixes and as many fours while Pathan came up with a 41-ball 63 that had seven shots to fence and one over the ropes.
72 runs were needed from 60 balls when a dangerous-looking McCullum, having struck two sixes and one boundary in the previous over, fell to Chawla as KKR were attacking full force with their spin trio.
Lions had bolstered their spin line-up by bringing leg-spinner Pravin Tambe to bowl alongside Ravindra Jadeja and Shivil Kaushik but the trio failed to make any impact on the Eden wicket.
Praveen took two wickets in three balls to reduce KKR to 15/2 in the third over before Dhawal Kularni made it 21/3 in the next over. Praveen had a dream start and also bowled a maiden to Suryakumar Yadav for a fine spell of 3-1-7-2 to make things worse for KKR.
KKR almost suffered a fifth dismissal on 32/4 but Pravin Tambe dropped Shakib, then on three, at third man boundary.
Scoreboard
Kolkata Knight Riders: Robin Uthappa c Karthik b Kulkarni 14, Gautam Gambhir b Kumar 5, Manish Pandey c Karthik b Kumar 0, Suryakumar Yadav c Raina b Smith 4, Shakib Al Hasan (not out) 66, Yusuf Pathan (not out) 63, Extras: (LB-2 W-4) 6, Total: (For 4 wkts in 20 overs) 158.
Fall of wickets: 1-15 2-15 3-21 4-24.
Bowling: Praveen Kumar 4-1-19-2, Dhawal Kulkarni 4-0-30-1, Dwayne Smith 2-0-14-1, Dwayne Bravo 4-0-39-0, Shivil Kaushik 1-0-14-0, Ravindra Jadeja 3-0-25-0, Pravin Tambe 2-0-15-0.
Gujarat Lions: Dwayne Smith b Shakib 27, Brendon McCullum c Pandey b Chawla 29, Suresh Raina c Hogg b Russell 14, Dinesh Karthik st Uthappa b Hogg 51, Aaron Finch (run out) 29, Ravindra Jadeja (not out) 9, Dwayne Bravo (not out) 0, Extras (WD-5) 5, Total (For 5 wkts in 18 overs) 164.
Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-67, 3-116, 4-155, 5-158.
Bowling: Andre Russell 3-0-21-1, Morne Morkel 4-0-38-0, Shakib Al Hasan 3-0-38-1, Piyush Chawla 4-0-30-1, Brad Hogg 2-0-19-1, Umesh Yadav 2-0-18-0.