Lions roar after Supergiant fall prey to Tye’s trick
rajkot — A hat trick from debutant all-rounder Andrew Tye and sensible top-order batting helped Gujarat Lions (GL) outclass Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) by seven wickets in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 match at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium here on Friday.
Tye bagged five wickets giving away 17 runs, the first in this edition of the IPL, including a hat trick in the final over of Pune’s innings, before the batsmen put on a collective show to chase down the 172 target, with two overs to spare.
Tye’s hat-trick was the second of the day after Royal Challengers Bangalore’s leg-spinner Samuel Badree got another in the afternoon game against Mumbai Indians. Gujarat got off to a flier with the opening duo of Dwayne Smith (47) and Brendon McCullum (49) putting on 94 runs with none of the Pune bowlers having an answer to their onslaught.
The West Indian started his innings with an unconvincing four to square leg off Ankit Sharma before gaining in confidence with a mammoth six on the fifth ball and then ending the over with another boundary through the covers to milk 16 runs.
McCullum did not lag behind either to take fellow New Zealander Lockie Ferguson out of the park for a six over long-off before meting out special treatment to South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir, whose initial two overs cost Pune 35 runs. There was no stopping the duo as the hosts rushed to 50 in just over five overs with Pune skipper Steve Smith changing as many as six bowlers before getting the first breakthrough in the form of Dwayne Smith, three short of his half century.
Playing his first match of the season, pacer Shardul Thakur’s slower delivery did the trick for Pune, when he induced Smith for an uppercut only to be land down the throat of Rahul Chahar at third man. The West Indian’s 30-ball knock was laced with eight hits to the fence and one over it.
Two overs later, a rush of blood saw McCullum’s end, one run short of his half century. The former Kiwi skipper, who had by then faced 32 balls, firing five boundaries and three massive sixes was outsmarted by Chahar, who dragged the length back seeing McCullum coming down the track leaving the rest for stumper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The very next over saw the back of stumper Dinesh Karthik (3), who failed to pick Tahir’s googly before chopping it back on to his stumps.
The loss of three quick wickets saw Gujarat slump to 111 for 3, before skipper Suresh Raina (35 not out) and Aaron Finch (33 not out) batted sensibly —