In a nutshell
Kolkata Knight Riders easily defeated Gujarat Lions in the Lion’s own den, riding on the dominant batting performances by their openers Chris Lynn and captain Gautam Gambhir. This was one of the most dominant victories in all of the T20 matches ever played, as Knight Riders easily chased down the target of 183 runs with 10 wickets and more than 5 overs to spare.
How it unfolded
The Knight Riders won the toss and wisely chose to chase on the Rajkot pitch, which has mostly favored teams batting second in the previous IPL tournament. The Lions started their innings well, and despite losing their opener JJ Roy in the 4th over, kept their run rate at near 9 runs an over. Brendon McCullum and Lion’s captain Suresh Raina shared a 50 run partnership for the second wicket, before McCullum was trapped in front of wicket by Kuldeep Yadav. Raina however remained unbeaten till the end, and together with some timely pinch hitting by Dinesh Karthik near the end of the innings, took the Lions to a healthy total of 183.
A total of 183 on the Rajkot ground could have been defended, but not by the weak bowling attack of Lions. Lynn came out guns blazing right from the start of the second innings. Manpreet Gony and Dwayne Smith were in particular badly mauled by Lynn. Gony, who last appeared in IPL in 2013, went for 32 runs in his two overs, and Smith’s only over went for 23 runs. No surprises that both these bowlers recorded the lowest Wins Probability Added (WPA) score of the evening. Gambhir joined to party too, and hit five boundaries against Shivil Kaushik in his first two overs. The Knight Riders never let the foot off the pedal, and easily chased down the target with all ten wickets in hand and 31 balls remaining.
Where the game was won
Chris Lynn and Gautam Gambhir gave the Lions’ bowlers just no chance to defend what was otherwise an above-par score for this ground. The Lions paraded a motley of bowlers in front of the two batsmen, but all of them, save for Pravin Kumar, went for over 10 runs an over.
What this means for the tournament
The Knight Riders couldn’t have asked for a better start to their tournament. Winning an away match in a dominant fashion that not only gives them two points to open their account with, but also gives them a healthy leg-up in the net run-rate column, which will give them an advantage should the need for tie-breaking arise for the knock-out round. For the Lions, this was a demoralizing loss, but there is still a long way to go in the tournament.
Takeaways
While the Knight Riders batted superbly, their bowlers didn’t do as good a job. Leaking 183 runs on what is otherwise a 150-160 run pitch should cause a concern. The dropped catches didn’t help, and the Knight Riders will look to improve in both these areas of their game as the tournament goes along.
The Gujarat Lions missed their more experience players dearly in the second innings, particularly Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo. They will most likely replace Manpreet Gony with James Faulkner in their next match, who can provide firepower in both the batting and bowling departments. In the meantime, they will also hope for the return of their injured players, which will further boost their placid bowling attack.