IPL 2016, KXIP vs GL: First hunt for the Gujarat Lions

With Kings XI Punjab playing with one less batsman, the team needed a solid start, and the two Vs — Murali Vijay and Manan Vohra — gave the team just that. After initailly seeing off Praveen Kumar, Vijay swatted Pradeep Sangwan for a six and a boundary. Vohra too joined in and hit James Faulkner for three boundaries in an over. The Chandigarh youngster would go on to hit a 105 m six off another home lad Sarabjit Ladda. The duo’s stay at the crease meant that the hosts were 52/0 in the power play. Vohra was looking immaculate when an inside edge off a Ravindra Jadeja ball showed him the door. Soon the ‘DJ’ took over and made Punjab dance to his tunes.

WATCH VIDEO: Gujarat Lions win

DJ comes to party

The arrival of KXIP skipper David Miller after the fall of Vohra’s wicket meant that Miller was batting for the first time at the number three slot. With 82 runs off the first nine overs, Lions’ skipper Suresh raina handed the ball to West Indian Dwayne Bravo. Jadeja’s back-of-a-length delievery saw the back of Vijay, which brought another big-hitter Glenn Maxwell to the crease. Bravo bowled a yorker to get rid of Maxwell and match Lasith Malinga at 299 wickets, the most in T20 cricket. Soon he went past it with the wicket of Miller, once again with a slow yorker. The next seven overs saw all-rounder Marcus Stonis and Wridiman Saha hitting just four boundaries, but facing only 12 dot balls to get the KXIP score past 150. Old hand Praveen Kumar too chipped in, giving away just 25 runs in his four overs. Bravo then accounted for Saha and Stoinis in the last over to restrict Kings to a below-par score.

Finch-hitting

When Brendon McCullum was stumped off Sandeep Sharma for zero, Aussie Aaron finch was seen practising a shadow swat with the bat. Finch would first hit fellow country man Mitchell Johnson with two boundaries before giving the same treatment to the comeback bowler Mohit Sharma. Like KXIP skipper David Miller, Suresh raina too promoted up the order and although he could score 20 in the 51-run partnership, Finch’s power-hitting meant that Lions scored 57 runs in the power play as compared to 52 runs scored by KXIP. Finch dealing the slowness of the pitch with cut shots and a tennis-like shot to carve a boundary off a Stoinis delivery.

On his way to a fifty, Finch would accumulate 41 runs off Johnson, Mohit and Stoinis, with only Sandeep Sharma being spared of the treatment. And when Lions crossed 100 runs, Finch’s strike-rate against all the KXIP bowlers was above 100. Finch, who has hit 112 boundaries in his IPL career, smashed KXIP bowlers for 12 boundaries to take that tally to 124 boundaries. Finch also ran 22 singles during his 47-ball 74-run stay at the crease and played only 23 percent of dot balls during his innings, a thing which kept Lions required run-rate under seven when he was at the crease. When he was out, stumped off leg-spinner Sahu, Gujrat were 117 and well on their way for a first win.