Two left-arm spinners took the centre stage and held sway over the bat. And one among them, Axar Patel, thrashed and in the wilderness in recent times, brought an end to Gujarat Lions’s winning streak in the Vivo-IPL-9 here on Sunday.
The tall spinner benefitted largely from the wicket, which was a trifle slow, to dismiss Dinesh Karthik and Dwayne Bravo in the seventh over and then completed a split hat-trick in the 11th over, winning a decision from umpire Virender Sharma against Ravindra Jadeja.
Like Glenn Maxwell who probably wondered why Virender had given him out and waited for a while, Jadeja too was surprised. Kings XI, riding on Axar’s remarkable effort, won by 23 runs, defending a modest 154.
Axar’s first victim was big-hitter Dwayne Smith who smashed Sandeep Sharma for a four and six off the first over. He was one of the four bowlers deployed in the PowerPlay by King’s XI skipper M. Vijay when Lions captain Suresh Raina had hit an inside out boundary through extra-cover in that over.
But once the left-arm spinner returned with a slightly old ball, the Gujarat Lions batsmen seemed clueless and when he finished with figures of 4-0-21-4, he had plotted his team’s second win in seven matches.
It was seamer Mohit Sharma who began the Lions’ decline, bowling Brendon McCullum in the second over. Mohit then hit Raina’s middle stump as the batsman attempted a cross-batted heave.
Once the visitors managed to restrict Lions in the PowerPlay, Axar took charge and with leg-spinner K.C. Cariappa also holding his own, the target of 155 became a tall order to achieve for the home team.
If Axar showed his skills after ordinary efforts in the previous six matches (four wickets at 34.75) , Shivil Kaushik, playing his second IPL match, showed proof that he too can puzzle the batsmen with his left-arm around the wicket variety.
Peculiar actionKaushik, whose peculiar action resembles that of former South African spinner Paul Adams, provided succour to Raina after new Kings XI captain Vijay decided to go on a leather hunt and set up a 59-run platform in the first six overs.
Introduced in the eighth over after Jadeja had sent back Marcus Stoinis — who danced down the pitch once too often — Kaushik who often delivers the ball from close to the return crease, removed southpaw Shaun Marsh who flicked to short mid-wicket. In the same over, he got a positive verdict from umpire Virender against Maxwell and put the skids on the Punjab team.
Kaushik’s third victim was Vijay who had batted imperiously to make a 41-ball 55 with half-a-dozen boundary hits.
David Miller, removed from captaincy after six matches, made 31 and Saha contributed a workman-like 33. The 39-run partnership between Miller and Saha helped Kings XI cross the 150 mark.
