Press Trust of India
Mohali, April 11: Mohali, April 11: Dwayne Bravo (4/22) recorded his best IPL figures before Aaron Finch smashed 74 (47b, 12×4) as Gujarat Lions (GL) thumped hosts Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by five wickets to make a winning entry into the IPL here Monday.
Invited to bat, Punjab openers Murali Vijay (42, 34b, 5×4) and Manan Vohra (38, 23b, 4×4, 2×6) ) put on 78 runs in 8.2 overs to lay a strong foundation for a big score but other batsmen failed to capitalise and the hosts settled at 161 for six.
Ravindra Jadeja (2/30) removed both the openers but it was Bravo who turned it around for the Lions by dismissing big-hitting David Miller (15) and Glenn Maxwell (2) in the space of three balls in the 12th over.
KXIP struggled to get quick runs after that and had it not been for Marcus Stoinis’ (33, 22b, 4×4) knock and his 55-run partnership with Wriddhiman Saha (20) they would have struggled to go past even 150-run mark.
Bravo accounted for two more batsmen in the last over and became the only player in IPL to have a combo of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets.
Lions lost Brendon McCullum (0) in the very first over of their chase when the Kiwi batsman was stumped by Saha off Sandeep Sharma but the visitors went about their business calmly and overhauled the target with 14 balls to spare.
Captain Suresh Raina (20) also fell after a positive start but Finch was solid at the other end, rattling up a 65-run stand for the third wicket Dinesh Karthik (41 n o, 26b, 7×4) to put GL in a strong position. When Finch finally fell, stumped off leg-spinner Pradeep Sahu, the visitors needed only 45 from eight overs.
Ravindra Jadeja was run out by a smart piece of football from Mitchell Johnson and then Ishan Kishan, making his IPL debut also fell to the same bowler. But Karthik saw them through.
