The way the third game of the Indian Premier League 2017 between the Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders kickstarted, it didn’t allow the spectators to simply sit and watch the game but forced them to jump off and cheer for the shots played by Brendon McCullum. KKR won the toss and elected to field first while Jason Roy and McCullum came to open the Gujarat innings. Both of them charged right from the beginning while KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir had no other option than to try new bowlers.
McCullum was totally on fire and hit a quick 35 run of just 24 balls. He hit some classic shots for which he is known. He not only played furiously but built a partnership of 50 runs with Suresh Rain who came in at number 3 after the dismissal of Jason Roy. Unfortunately, McCullum was dismissed by the Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav.
But there was Raina who stood confident and played a skipper’s knock. In the middle of the game, the scoring speed went bit slow after Aron Finch was dismissed and Dinesh Karthik came into bat. He supported Raina to the fullest and they both added 67 runs for the 5th wicket. But on the second last ball of the 20th over, Karthik lost his wicket to Trent Boult after playing an inning of 47 runs off 25 balls.
Suresh Raina knocked another IPL half century and his saviour inning helped GL to put 183 runs on the scoreboard after the inning end.
Most Sixes:
McCullum, Finch and Karthik, all hit 2 sixes each.
Most fours:
Gujarat skipper Suresh Raina hit the most number of boundaries. He hit 7 fours and was followed by Dinesh Karthik (6), McCullum(4) and Jason Roy (3).
Wickets taken:
Trent Boult: 1
Piyush Chawla: 1
Kuldeep Yadav: 2
Most expensive bowler:
Yusuf Pathan – 1 over – 15 runs | Chris Woakes – 3 overs – 35 runs
