IPL 2017 | Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum secure Gujarat’s first win

04/14/2017

An Andrew Tye hattrick and a vintage display of power hitting by Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum secured Gujarat’s first win of the 2017 campaign. Steve Smith marked his return to the side with a 28-ball 43, but a lower order collapse resulted in Pune managing a sub par score of 171.

Brief scores: Rising Pune Supergiants 171/8 (Steve Smith 43, Rahul Tripathi 33; Andrew Tye 5/17, Dwayne Smith 1/10) lost to Gujarat Lions 172/3 (Brendon McCullum 49, Dwayne Smith 47; Shardul Thakur 1/14, Rahul Chahar 1/26) by 7 wickets.

To get out of the early rut they found themselves in, Gujarat Lions made four changes to their team bringing in Andrew Tye, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishan Kishan, and Shadab Jakati for the game against Rising Pune Supergiant. The visitors, who suffered a humiliating 97-run loss to Delhi in their last, game made five changes with captain Steve Smith making a comeback to the team.

Smith, Tripathi rescue Pune after Rahane wicket

Winning the toss, Gujarat opted to field first and were rewarded in the very first over when Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed thanks to a brilliant catch by Suresh Raina in the slips. Steve Smith walked in and picked up where he had left off before his illness with a well timed straight drive. Rahul Tripathi, too, joined the action with a four off his very first ball as Pune took early control of the game. To counteract the visitor’s quick start, Raina introduced the returning Ravindra Jadeja but it did not have the desired effect as the offie conceded 12 runs off his over. The worst, however, was yet to come as the Pune duo smashed Praveen Kumar for 25 runs of a single over and even with the dismissal of Tripathi, Pune had accumulated 64 runs in their powerplay overs. It was Dwayne Smith who delivered the all-important wicket of Steve Smith in the 10th over that changed the game in Gujarat’s favour.

Tye leads Gujarat fightback

Having scored 92 runs off the first ten overs, Pune appeared to be on track for a 200+ score with Ben Stokes consistently getting boundaries in every over. Andrew Tye, who conceded just three runs of his first over, was brought back on and he rewarded his captain’s faith by disturbing the furniture of the most expensive foreign player in the league. Dhoni’s struggles in the IPL continued yet again as he failed to cross over into double digits. However, with 149 off 17 overs, Pune still had the chance to post a big score but Manoj Tiwary and Ankit Sharma were struggled to find the boundaries. In the last over, Tye finally dashed Pune’s chances by claiming the second hat-trick of the day, after Samuel Badree had picked up the treble in the earlier game against Mumbai. Pune eventually managed to set the home side a target of 171, which was at least 20 runs short of what was expected.

Dr. Smith and BMac slog like its 2015

Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum finally arrived at the 2017 IPL with a display of power hitting that was synonymous with Gujarat last season. In the very first over, Dwayne made his intent clear as Ankit Sharma was thrashed for 16 runs. The Kiwi joined the party in the next over with a huge six off a Lockie Ferguson delivery. Even the introduction Imran Tahir, currently the top T20 bowler in ICC’s rankings, was not going to stop the Gujarat duo, leaking another 15 runs with the scoreboard reflecting 61 runs in Gujarat’s kitty after the powerplay overs. Spreading out the field did not help either as the Lions’ openers kept picking the gaps to keep the run-rate well over the required 7 per over. The dismissal of Dwayne barely made a dent with Raina joining McCullum, to took their team’s score to 96 at the midway point of the innings.

Gujarat finally get some points on the table

Needing just 76 runs off the last 10 overs, Gujarat slowed down the pace of the game and paid the price for it as McCullum was dismissed by a combination of brilliant bowling by Chahar and the usual calm of MS Dhoni who displaced the bails to give Pune some hope in the game. Tahir, who had conceded 35 runs in his first two overs, took out the dangerous Dinesh Karthik in the 13th over but it proved to be a false dawn. The incoming Aaron Finch got off the mark with a boundary while Raina took over the role of the enforcer as he hit Stokes, who had an economy of just 4, for two boundaries in an over, bringing the Lions’ first win even closer. In the 16th over, Gujarat all but sealed the win earning 13 runs off a Tahir over to make victory almost a run a ball away. Gujarat eventually reached the target with two overs and seven wickets to spare.