IPL 2017 | Gambhir-Lynn hammer Gujarat Lions into submission

04/07/2017

Gautam Gambhir and Chris Lynn joined hands to showcase some explosive power-hitting to guide Kolkata Knight Riders’ to a fantastic 10-wicket victory over Gujarat Lions. Earlier, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik had taken the Lions to 183 runs, but as it turned out, it was never going to be enough.

Brief scores: Gujarat Lions 183/4 ( Suresh Raina 68*, Dinesh Karthik 47, Kuldeep Yadav 2/45, Piyush Chawla 1/33 ) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 184/0 (Chris Lynn 93*, Gautam Gambhir 76*) by 10 wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and unsurprisingly chose to field first as a team batting first had never won an evening game in Rajkot. Both the teams opted to start with an Aussie, a Kiwi, a West Indian, and an Englishman in the team but it was the toss winners who appeared to have a better balance as Gujarat opted to fill all their overseas spots with batsmen.

McCullum and Raina steady ship after Roy’s debut failure

Jason Roy, who was picked to partner Brendon McCullum over Dwayne Smith, made an explosive start to his IPL career smashing Trent Boult for two boundaries in the very first over. Gautam Gambhir decided to introduce spin early and it paid rich dividends with Roy top edging a Piyush Chawla delivery right into the hands of Yusuf Pathan. However, that did little slow down the run-rate with McCullum and Raina hitting the spinners to every corner of the ground as the Knight Riders piled on 72 runs in just eight overs. Kuldeep removed the Kiwi but Aaron Finch, who walked in to bat next, smashed Yusuf Pathan for two consecutive sixes in the next over to take Gujarat to 91/2 in midway through the innings.

Karthik provides AB-esque innings

After Finch was dismissed two balls later because of a brilliant running catch by Surya Kumar Yadav, the man in form, Dinesh Karthik, joined his captain at the crease. The Tamil Nadu player took his time to settle down, scoring just nine runs off his first nine balls, but once he found his rhythm, he started playing a 360-degree game - getting runs from all parts of the ground. After Kuldeep Yadav suffered a brain fade moment, missing an easy opportunity to run Raina out, Karthik and Raina, who had gone past Virat Kohli’s record for the highest runs in the IPL history, started scoring freely taking the score from 130 off 16 overs to 183 in the stipulated 20 overs.

Chris Lynn ends Gujarat’s hopes in the first 10 overs

Needing to chase at a run-rate of over 9 runs an over, KKR knew that they needed a quick start and that is just what they got thanks to Chris Lynn. The Aussie hit Praveen Kumar for a boundary in the first over and followed it up with a six in the next. Gambhir joined the action as well putting away the bad balls but it was Lynn who had raced to 22 off just nine balls that would have been a worry for Raina and co. The Gujarat captain handed the ball to unorthodox spinner Shivil Kaushik in the hopes of breaking the partnership but it was to no avail as both Gambhir and Lynn got a boundary a piece of the 21-year-old’s over. Three quick boundaries from the KKR captain ensured his team finished with their highest ever powerplay score in the powerplay. The records were breaking all around as Lynn brought up this season’s fastest 50 off just 19 balls before a Gambhir boundary broke the record for the highest opening stand for the Knight Riders as KKR sat in the comfortable position of 131/0 after 11 overs.

With 53 runs required off the last nine overs, the Kolkata duo continued scoring at a brisk pace with Lynn being the chief tormentor. The duo broke another franchise record as they went past Jacques Kallis and Gambhir's 2011 record partnership of 152 runs. Having opted to play with four out and out batsmen, Raina was struggling to find ways of breaking the partnership but he was soon put out of his misery in the 16th over as Kolkata wrapped up an easy 10-wicket win.