En route to reclaiming the top spot in the list of all-time highest run-getters’ list in the Indian Premier League, Suresh Raina marked a return to competitive cricket by anchoring the Gujarat Lions innings.
Dinesh Karthik gave it a perfect finishing touch with a quickfire 47.
But Chris Lynn and Gautam Gambhir surmounted the effort to set up a crushing win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Saurashtra Cricket Association stadium.
Such was Lynn and Gambhir’s onslaught that Knight Riders overhauled a stiff target of 184 with a whopping 31 balls to spare.
Once the right-left combination succeeded in going after the seasoned pace duo of Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni at the start of the chase, the rest of the bowlers — especially the spin duo of Shivil Kaushik and Shadab Jakati — offered too many freebies for an on-song pair.
On the way to a fitting start to its campaign — with co-owners Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla present in the gallery — Lynn and Gambhir broke a plethora of records.
Not only did Lynn raise the joint second-fastest fifty for KKR, off just 19 balls, but the duo also recorded the highest partnership ever for Kolkata Knight Riders. The team's previous best association was Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey's unbroken 153 versus Dolphins in Hyderabad during the 2014 Champions League Twenty20.
Besides, the PowerPlay tally of 73 was the team's highest in IPL. With Lions dropping a couple of catches in the outfield and Lynn cutting loose towards the end, the match culminated in the highest-ever T20 chase with 10 wickets to spare.
Lynn, promoted to open the batting, was at his raucous best. His flat hits were mind-boggling, so were his straight hits down the ground.
So consistent was the duo's big-hitting that Knight Riders crossed the three-figure mark in the eighth over, with the second fifty coming off just 17 balls.
Kaushik bowled too short for his chinamen — exactly in contradiction to his Knight Riders counterpart Kuldeep Yadav — only to see Gambhir toy with his bowling.
Lynn then took on Dwayne Smith's dibbly-dobblies to force Lions repent their decision to prefer Smith over allrounder James Faulkner.
With the target appearing closer, Gambhir's three boundaries off Manpreet Grewal helped the captain overtake Lynn for a while.
But Lynn's final barrage against Kulkarni meant he remained unbeaten, just seven runs shy of a hundred.
The duo's carnage meant that the Rajkotians returned home with little to remember about the Lions' batting essay earlier in the night.
While Brendon McCullum started off in his trademark aggressive manner, the spin duo of Kuldeep and Piyush Chawla put the brakes on in the middle overs before Karthik and Raina flourished in the death overs.
