Mumbai: Rahul Tewatia blasted
an impactful 40 off 24 balls after Mohammad Shami’s sensational new ball spell
to set up a five-wicket win for Gujarat Titans against Lucknow Super Giants in
the battle of IPL debutants here on Monday.
Deepak Hooda (55 off 41 balls)
and Ayush Badoni (54 off 41 balls)
smashed quick-fire half centuries to help Super Giants recover to a
respectable 158/6 after Shami (3/25) blew away their top-order.
Needing 68 off the last 30
balls, Titans were up against it but Tewatia (40 not out), David Miller (30 off
21) and IPL debutant Abhinav Manohar (15 not out off 7) pulled off a memorable
win for their team with two balls to spare.
In pursuit of 159, Gujarat
were down and out at 78/4 before Miller and Tewatia forged a match-winning 60
run-stand off just 34 balls.
They were brutal on Deepak
Hooda, as they fetched 22 runs in the 16th over, with each hitting one six and
one four. And then Tewatia hammered a six and two fours in the next over, where
Gujarat amassed 17 runs, to bring down the equation to 29 from 18 balls.
Avesh removed Miller in the
18th over to raise his side’s hopes, but Manohar and Tewatia, who hit five
boundaries and two maximums, saw the team home.
Skipper Hardik Pandya (33) and
Matthew Wade (30) forged 57 runs for the third wicket to take the innings
forward after two early losses.
Earlier, Hooda and IPL
debutant Badoni, who had endured plenty of struggles in the past three years,
took Super Giants to a respectable score after Shami reduced them to 29 for
four.
But then Hooda (55) and Badoni
(54), took the onus on themselves and resurrected the Lucknow innings with an
87-run-stand off 68 balls.
Hooda struck six fours and two
sixes in his 41-ball knock while Badoni hammered four boundaries and three
maximums in his 41 ball innings.
After Hooda was trapped in
front of the wicket by Rashid Khan (1/27) in the 16th over, Badoni, who is a
product despite the system, upped the ante and played shots at will. Badoni hit
the likes of Rashid Khan and Lockie Ferguson for a six and that should stay in
his memory for life.
Lucknow lost captain KL Rahul
(0) on the first ball of the game as Shami had him caught behind with a beauty.
PTI Shami then cleaned up Quinton De
Kock (7), who missed a drive, in the third over as Lucknow was reeling at 13/2.
Lucknow were in all sorts of
trouble at 20/3 as Evin Lewis (10) was dismissed, courtesy a stunning catch by
Shubman Gill in the deep off pacer Varun Aaron (2/45).
Shami got his third wicket,
after he castled Manish Pandey (6) with a ball that seamed back in after
pitching on the fourth stump. It was the first-time Shami took three wickets in
the power-play in the IPL. After six overs, Lucknow were reeling at 32/4. Then
it was the Hooda and Badoni show.
Hardik Pandya, playing his first game since the T20 World Cup last year, conceded 37 runs in four overs. Badoni went after him in his final over that went for 19 runs. (PTI)
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