Gujarat Lions has begun the second half of the VIVO IPL10 on a positive note. It scored a terrific seven-wicket win against the beleaguered Royal Challengers Bangalore with almost six overs to spare at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday. Utterly erratic in the first half when it lost five matches including to the RCB in the home match, the Lions have half a dozen matches to go and it must be hoping to put across Mumbai Indians in the last home match here at the Saurashtra Cricket Stadium here on Saturday.
With champion teams like Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians taking the top two slots in the points table, the race for the play-offs has virtually kicked off and teams like Lions have to do the hard yards in order make an impact, win the big points and make it to the top four.
- Gujarat Lions: Suresh Raina (Captain), Akshadeep Nath, Shubham Agarwal, Basil Thampi, Dwayne Smith, Chirag Suri, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Manpreet Gonly, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Dinesh Karthik, Dhaval Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Brandon McCullum, Pradeep Sangwan, Jason Roy, Jaydev Shah, Shelly Shaurya, Nathusingh, Tejas Baroka and Andrew Tye.
- Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Lendl Simmons, Mitchel Johnsohn, Mitchell McClenghan, Nitish Rana, Parthiv Patel, Saurabh Tiwary, Shreyas Gopal, Tim Southee, Lasith Malinga, Krunal Pandya, Keiron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Asela Gunaratne, Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, Jagdish Suchith, Jaspreet Bumrah, Jos Buttler, Karn Sharma and Vinay Kumar.
The Lions have their task cut out because its bowling department looks weak and exhausted; only the Australian seamer Andrew Tye has looked the part taking 12 wickets at a low cost of 11 runs a wicket. The Indian segment has proved to be pricey so far with Praveen Kumar conceding 129 runs of 75 balls, Jadeja 221 of 144 balls, Basil Thampi, 229 of 150 balls. Seamer Dhawal Kulkarni has played four matches and he has a mere one wicket to show for conceding 119 runs of 65 balls.
In all the Lions’ bowlers have taken 33 wickets at 41.52 in eight matches and skipper Suresh Raina and the team think tank must find ways to make their bowling department deliver the goods in the remaining matches. The absence of West Indian Dwayne Bravo has made the Lions attack vulnerable. It was much against the trend though that its bowlers lifted their performance and restricted RCB to 134.
For the second season in a row, the Lions have depended largely on Raina (309 runs), Brendon McCullum (267), Dinesh Karthik (190) to fire with the bat. Australian Aaron Finch, who did not play the away match against MI because his kit could not be found, played the match winning knock against RCB with a strike rate of 211.76 (72, 34 balls, five 4s and six 6s) and he must be looking forward to a productive outing against MI in the home match.
MI return to action after a four-day break going down to Rising Pune Supergiant for the second time in the tournament at the Wankhede Stadium last Monday.
Rohit Sharma struck form against RPS, scored a half century, but quarrelled with umpire S. Ravi on a wide ball interpretation. Promptly pulled up by the match referee for the second time in this season’s league, Sharma lost 50 % of his match fee.
The welcome break has also given time for Sharma to reflect on his behaviour and also to consider Lasith Malinga preparedness to return to the ranks. The Sri Lankan fast bowler decided to take a break after the Lions smashed him for 51 runs in four overs at the Wankhede and thereafter the KXIP scored 58 runs in four overs at Indore.
