Published: Apr 29, 2016, 08:37 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 29, 2016, 08:44 PM (IST)
Gujarat Lions have gone past 50 in match 25 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 that they are playing against Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS). GL won the toss and elected to bowl first. Praveen Kumar was given the new ball by Gujarat skipper Suresh Raina. He started well giving just five runs in his first over. His ball was swinging pretty well. Ajinkya Rahane hit the first big scoring shot in RPS’ innings when he hit the second ball of the next over bowled by Dhawal Kulkarni for a four down the ground. He stepped down slightly to get the ball in the length he wanted. Saurabh Tiwary was unfortunate to get run out in the third over. It was due to some excellent handiwork by Suresh Raina. Steven Smith replaced Rahane in the middle. Live Cricket Scorecard: Rising Pune Supergiants vs Gujarat Lions, IPL 2016, MATCH 25
It was certainly not the start RPS was hoping. Smith hit the very first ball he faced for a four over fine leg. After playing a dot, he then picked up a single towards the third man region. The batters then tried to rotate the strike a bit but they were always on the lookout for a four off a lose delivery. Kulkarni bowled a tight fourth over giving just four runs in it. Smith tried to get down the wicket a few times. He hit two back-to-back fours off Praveen’s bowling. This prompted Dinesh Karthick to come near the wicket. Live Blog: Rising Pune Supergiants vs Gujarat Lions, IPL 2016, MATCH 25
After the end of five overs, Pune were 35 for the loss of one wicket. Gujarat had the upper hand at this moment. Rahane thought to up the scoring rate from that moment. He hit Kulkarni for a four off the first ball of the last powerplay over. But prudently he then rotated the strike the next ball. At the time of publishing this report, RPS were batting on 70 for 1 in 9 overs with Smith needing 12 more runs to get to his fifty.
