In a nutshell
For the second time in the day, a bowler took a hat-trick. Unlike Samuel Badree’s effort in the previous match, however, this time Andrew Tye’s effort did not go in vain, as his hat-trick in the last over of the first innings halted Pune’s momentum. Gujarat then easily chased down the total of 171 runs with two overs remaining and seven wickets in hand to secure their first win of the season.
How it unfolded
Both the teams made quite a few changes to their squads. For Pune, captain Smith returned after sitting out the previous match. Dhawal Kulkarni and Faf du Plessis were benched in favor of Lockie Ferguson and Shardul Thakur. For Gujarat, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja made a much needed return to the team, and they also included Andrew Tye, Ishan Kishan and Shadab Jakati in the final eleven.
Gujarat won the toss and selected to field. Pravin Kumar immediately justified this decision for Gujarat when he got Rahane caught in the first over without Pune having scored a single run. Smith and Tripathi then shared a 64 run partnership for the second wicket, and pulled the momentum back for Pune. Though Pune kept losing wickets at regular intervals, they maintained a steady run rate of more than eight an over. Before the start of the final over, Pune were at 167 runs and looked well set to cross the 180 runs threshold. However, they were completely undone by Tye, who took a hat-trick with the first three balls of the final over, and gave away only four runs. What seemed like becoming a formidable chase for Gujarat, now suddenly started looking very achievable.
Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum gave the Lions just the start they needed, by scoring 94 runs in less than nine overs for the first wicket. The Lions then lost the two openers in quick succession, and when Dinesh Karthik got out in in the third over, Pune sniffed a chance at victory. However, captain Suresh Raina and Aaron Finch anchored the chase from this point onwards, and made sure that Lions chased down the target in 18th over without losing any further wickets.
Where the game was won
Andrew Tye was the key bowler for the Lions. By the time he came to bowl the last over, he had already taken two important wickets. However, his hat-trick ensured that Pune couldn’t cash on in the final over, and more importantly it shifted the momentum completely towards Gujarat Lions.
Smith and McCullum’s first wicket partnership laid the foundation for a successful chase for the Lions, and later Raina and Finch capitalized upon this partnership to steer Lions to an easy win against Pune.
What this means for the tournament
Having lost three consecutive matches, Pune now find themselves at the bottom of the points table. Gujarat Lions were finally able to open their account in this season, but there are only just above Pune. Now that Gujarat have got some of their key players back, they will be hoping to repeat their performance from last year where they topped the points table in the league stage.
Takeaways
For Pune, bowling remains a sore spot. In none of the previous three matches did their bowlers take more than 4 wickets, while giving up more than 160 runs in all of those matches. Imran Tahir has been the lone bright spot for Pune’s bowling, but without a good supporting cast Tahir on his own can’t win matches for Pune. They will also be worried about Dhoni’s form in the tournament so far. He isn’t the hitter he once was, but his paltry contributions so far makes it difficult to justify his inclusion in the team.
Andrew Tye has proved to be a good bargain for Gujarat so far at just a $75K salary. However, bowling remains a concern for Gujarat too, whose bowlers could manage only one wicket in the first two matches this season. The return of Jadeja definitely gives their bowing a much needed boost, but they will definitely need to improve upon their bowling if they intend to repeat their last season performance.