IPL 2017 | Gujarat win and dent Punjab’s playoff dream

05/07/2017

Kings XI Punjab were dealt a big blow in their race for a playoff place after they were handed a 6-wicket defeat by the Gujarat Lions in Mohali. Hashim Amla’s second century of the season set GL a target of 190, which the visitors achieved with 2 balls to spare thanks to Dwayne Smith’s 39-ball 74.

Brief Scores: Kings XI Punjab 189/3 (Hashim Amla 104, Shaun Marsh 58; Dhawal Kulkarni 1/24, Pradeep Sangwan 1/28) lost to Gujarat Lions 191/4 (Dwayne Smith 74, Suresh Raina 39; Sandeep Sharma 2/29, Glenn Maxwell 1/21) by six wickets.

Gujarat Lions won the toss and decided to bowl first, unsurprisingly. The surprise, though, was that for just the eighth time in IPL history a team had decided to take the field with just three overseas players. The Lions decided to replace the injured Brendon McCullum with Dhawal Kulkarni. Punjab, too, made one change with Manan Vohra making way for Gurkeerat Singh.

Amla-Marsh consolidate innings after Guptill dismissal

Needing a win all their matches to keep the playoff dream in their own hands, Punjab got off to the worst possible start as they lost Martin Guptill with just three runs on the board after the first two overs. Hashim Amla, though put his foot on the accelerator, with Shaun Marsh playing the anchor role, and guided his side to 44/1 from the powerplay overs. Marsh joined the action as well by scoring a boundary in every over till the midway point of the innings and with both batsmen rotating the strike well, Punjab appeared to be heading for a big score. With 10 overs done, Punjab had managed to get 81 runs on the board.

Hashim Amla steals the show

Despite Marsh’s boundaries, it was Amla who got to his half century first and to celebrate it he smashed Ankit Soni for a six off the last ball of the over. Three balls later, it was Marsh’s turn to raise the bat as the scoreboard read 114/1 with six overs to go. Having played a very patient innings, Marsh’s 58-run knock came to an end when he tried to go after Kulkarni, only to mistime one right down the throat of Aaron Finch at long on. But Amla and Glenn Maxwell went on the offensive and started scoring freely bringing up the 150 with three overs still in the kitty. Maxwell smashed Sangwan for consecutive sixes in the penultimate over before Amla brought up his second century of the IPL with a flat six over deep extra cover. Even though the South African was dismissed in the last over, Punjab had scored 39 runs in the last three overs to take the score to a competitive 189/3.

Dwayne Smith finally comes good

Even though it was Ishan Kishan who got the first boundary of the innings, it was Dwayne Smith who truly got the show running with two boundaries of Mohit Sharma. By the time the powerplay overs were done, Smith had scored six more boundaries, taking the Gujarat score to 58/0 while keeping the required run rate at a steady 9 runs an over. While spreading out the field usually stems the run flow, it had a counter effect on the home side as the Gujarat batsmen started playing an expansive range of shots. Kishan, who had been anchoring the innings with Smith acting as the aggressor, tried to up the ante but he could only pick out David Miller at deep midwicket. But needing just 87 runs off the last 60 balls, Gujarat appeared to be in full control of the game.

Karthik sees off late Punjab surge

Even though the required run rate had come down from nine runs an over for the first time in the innings, Smith kept going after the Punjab attack and after a six off the first ball of the 11th over, the West Indian was back in the dugout on the next after finding Guptill at the deep midwicket boundary. The incoming Dinesh Karthik and the well settled Suresh Raina kept the scoreboard ticking, ensuring the run rate never became a problem. With 28 needed off 18 deliveries, it was Gujarat’s game to lose and Sandeep Sharma tried his best to get Punjab back into the game by dismissing Raina and Aaron Finch in the same over. But Karthik scored 10 off two consecutive deliveries in the penultimate over, that eventually leaked 16 runs and sealed the victory for Gujarat. Punjab will now have to win all their matches and still hope for other results to go their way to make the playoffs.