Gujarat Lions win thriller

PUNE: Gujarat Lions beat Rising Pune Supergiants by three wickets in a thriller at Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium here on Friday.

A combination of nerves, poor shot selection from Gujarat Lions and outstanding fielding by Rising Pune Supergiants kept the game alive till the end.

On a night when Steven Smith made a century and Dwayne Smith made a bruising 37-ball 63, it was birthday boy James Faulkner who hammered the final nail into the coffin as Lions chased down 196 to consolidate their position at the top of the standings.

Steven Smith’s surgical precision, fast hands, quick feet and strong wrists fetched him a maiden T20 century that would have had the status of match-winning on most nights. But it was put to shade by a brutal exhibition of power hitting from Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith. Their 93-run opening stand in 8.1 overs allowed Suresh Raina (34) and Dinesh Karthik (33) the rare luxury of playing themselves in and take the chase right till the end.

When Karthik holed out to Rahane at deep midwicket Lions needed 30 off 22. But just when it looked like they had closed the game out, came two further blows of Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja immediately after an outstanding four-run over from rookie leg-spinner M Ashwin that reduced the equation to 20 off the last two overs.

The pressure was back on the Lions, although briefly as Dinda’s half-tracker was picked into the fine leg boundary to reduce the equation to nine off the final over.

Faulkner held his shape to swing the first ball into the square leg boundary to tilt the scales in Lions’ favour.