Struggling to find form after three losses in four matches, Gujarat Lions would look to make the home advantage count when they take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL match on Tuesday April 18,2017
The Lions had a dream debut last season by finishing third. But, they are struggling this year, losing back to back games, against Kolkata Knight Riders at home and Sunrisers Hyderabad away, before registering their first win of IPL-10 by beating Rising Pune Supergiant at home.
The Suresh Raina-led side suffered a six-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians last night and they are now at seventh spot, just above bottom-placed RCB, at the league table
Lions' top order batsmen like Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Raina and Dinesh Karthik have been in good touch but the problem has been that they have not been firing in unison
Bowling has been a matter of concern for Lions in the first two matches where they picked up just one wicket, but the inclusion of Andrew Tye has added sting to the bowling attack. Tye made a dream debut against Pune by taking five wickets, including a hat-trick. He also picked up two wickets against Mumbai yesterday.
Praveen Kumar looked good in the first couple of overs and gave early breakthroughs for Lions against Pune and Mumbai but he remained expensive in death overs. Munaf Patel played his first game yesterday and took one wicket while Kerala seamer Basil Thampi was also impressive against Mumbai.
The spin department still looked unimpressive even after return of Ravindra Jadeja who has been handy with both the bat and ball But, the other spinners like Shadab Jakati and Shivil Kaushik proved to be expensive when they were given a chance.
Last year's runners-up RCB have also been struggling, having lost four matches and won only one -- against Delhi Daredevils. They are now at the bottom of the eight-team table with two points from five matches.
Skipper Virat Kohli, who missed RCB's first two matches due to shoulder injury, showed his class as he scored 62 in his first game of the tournament against KXIP.
RCB seemed to be still looking for the right combination and some other big players have not been playing to their potential. Swashbuckling West Indian batsman Chris Gayle have scored just 60 runs from the three matches he has played so far and was dropped twice, including in the match against Mumbai yesterday.
Kohli, Shane Watson and AB De Villers, alongwith Kedar Jadhav, are the other key batsmen of RCB but they are yet to fire consistently and in unison.
In the bowling department, RCB looked much better than the Lions, with seamers like Tymal Mills, Billy Stanlake, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sreenath Arvind and Samuel Badree
Head-to-Head
Overall RCB have a 2-1 lead against GL, including a 144 Run Victory , the largest margin in the IPL.
2017 IPL Season 10 Points Table
Gujarat Lions(GL) - Seventh
- lost to KKR by 10 Wickets
- lost to SRH by 9 Wickets
- beat RPS by 7 Wickets
- lost to MI by 6 Wickets
Royal Challengers Bengaluru(RCB) - Eighth
- lost to SRH by 35 Runs
- beat DD by 15 Runs
- lost to KXIP by 8 Wickets
- lost to MI by 4 Wickets
- lost to RPS by 27 Runs
The Teams (From)
Gujarat Lions: Suresh Raina (Capt), Akshadeep Nath, Shubham Agarwal, Basil Thampi, Dwayne Bravo, Chirag Suri, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Manpreet Gony, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Dinesh Kartik, Dhavak Kulkarni, Shivil Kaushik, Praveen Kumar, Brandon McCullum, Munaf Patel, Pratham Singh, Jason Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Jaydev Shah, Shelly Shaurya, Nathusingh, Dwayne Smith, Tejas Baroka and Andrew Tye.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (Capt), Tymal Mills, Aniket Chaudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake, AB de Viller, Chris Gayle, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Sarfaraz Khan, Sreenath Arvind, Kedar Jadhav, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Sameuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Travis Head, Shchjin Baby, Avesh Khan and Tabraiz Shamsi.
RCB beat GL by 21 Runs
RCB Scored 213/2 in 20 Overs
Chris Gayle 77(38 Balls 4x5 and 6x7)
Virat Kohli 64(50 Balls 4x7 and 6x1)
Travis Head 30*(16 Balls 4x2 and 6x1)
Kedar Jadhav 38*(16 Balls 4x5 and 6x2)
Wicket Takers (GL)
Basil Thampi 1/31(4)
Dhawal Kulkarni 1/37(4)
GL scored 192/7 in 20 Overs
Brendon McCullum 72(44 Balls 4x2 and 6x7)
Ishan Kishan 39(16 Balls 4x2 and 6x4)
Wicket Takers(RCB)
Yuzvendra Chahal 3/31(4)
Pawan Negi 1/21(4)
Adam Milne 1/43(4)
Sreenath Aravind 1/53(4)
Match Result - RCB won by 21 Runs
MOM - Chris Gayle(RCB)for his 77(38 Balls 4x5 and 6x7)
Chris Scored 10000+ Runs in T20 Cricket
Chris Gayle, the brutal and entertaining Jamaican hard-hitter, is now in an elite club of his own – one for those with 10,000 T20 runs.
RCB’s Chris Gayle became the first entrant of the exclusive club as he reached 3 against the Gujarat Lions in their 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Tuesday April 19,2017
He went on to score a 38-ball 77, with the help of seven sixes and five fours.
Before the start of the 2017 IPL, Gayle needed 63 runs to reach the 10,000 milestone. He scored 32, 6, 22 in the three matches he played prior to Tuesdays fixture. He was also dropped from two matches, which delayed the milestone
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