Pune: Gujarat Lions registered an exciting 3-wicket over the struggling Rising Pune Supergiants in the 25th match of the Indian Premier League at MCA Stadium in Pune.
Suresh Raina won the toss for Gujarat Lions and invited Rising Pune Supergiants to bat first.
Steve Smith smashed 101 off 54 deliveries to steer Rising Pune Supergiants to an imposing 195/3 in 20 overs against Gujarat.
En route to his maiden IPL ton, the 26-year-old Australian struck eight boundaries and five sixes. He was well supported by Ajinkya Rahane (53 off 45).
The talented duo used their experience to best effect to sneak in with ones and twos followed by a couple of boundaries and big hits to bring up their 100-run partnership for the second wicket in the 13th over itself and help their team reach 118/1.
After Rahane’s dismissal, Smith again got good support by MS Dhoni who smashed 30 runs off just 18 deliveries that included two fours and 2 sixes.
For Gujarat Lions, Dwayne Bravo was the only bowler who managed to pick up a wicket, as the other two dismissals were run out.
Chasing a massive target of 196, Gujarat Lions got an excellent start as Dwayne Smith (63 runs from just 37 balls) and Brendon McCullum (43 off 22 deliveries) added 93 runs for the first wicket in just eight overs.
McCullum was dismissed by Rajat Bhatia. He smashed five boundaries and two sixes in his 43-run innings. Smith was also bowled out by Perera in the 11th over.
Suresh Raina (34 runs from 28 balls) and Dinesh Karthik (33 runs from 20 balls) then added crucial 51 runs for the third wicket, pushing the team’s score to 166 in the 17th over.
Gujarat finally required nine runs from the last over of Thisara Perera.
Faulkner smashed a boundary off the first ball between fine leg and deep square leg.
The match against took a turn when Perera took two wickets in two consecutive deliveries sending Raina and Ishan Kishan back to pavilion.
Requiring one run from the last ball, Faulkner hit the winning run for Gujarat Lions guiding the team to a three-wicket win over Rising Pune Supergiants.
For Pune, Dinda and Perera bagged two wickets each giving away 40 and 41 runs respectively in their 4-over slot. Rajat Bhatia took one wicket giving away 26 runs in three overs.
