Despite being a newly assembled franchise, Gujarat Lions had begun the 2016 IPL with a bang. The Suresh Raina-led side utilized their all-round skills to post three victories out of three to begin their journey in IPL 2016.
On the other hand, the Sunrisers Hyderabad could only manage a solitary win from their three outings. David Warner led from the front to prevail over the Mumbai Indians with a brilliant knock.
Warner won the toss and decided to insert the opposition in. Despite Raina’s enterprising half-century, the Gujarat Lions were unable to muster a competitive total. Riding on Warner’s fiery start, the Sun Risers romped home quite comfortably.
Let us take a look at the key statistics from the engrossing encounter in Rajkot.
1 – Half-centuries scored by Shikhar Dhawan in the 2016 IPL season. The aggressive left-hander finally struck some form which should solve one of his skipper’s worries.
2 – Five-wicket hauls taken by James Faulkner which is the most by any bowler in the IPL. Both those spells came against the Sun Risers during the 2013 edition. However, he was inexplicably dropped on a surface which could have suited his style of bowling.
3 – Consecutive fifties scored by David Warner in T20s while chasing targets. This was his fourth such performance in 2016. In contrast, he has tallied only 48 runs from 4 matches when batting first during the year.
4 – Ducks registered by Aaron Finch in his T20 career. Coming into the match on the back of three consecutive fifties, the aggressive batsman was castled by an in swinger from Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
4 – Number of century partnerships between Warner and Dhawan in the IPL. Though they joined together only in 2014, the Indo-Australian duo hold the opening record.
4 – Wickets taken by Mustafizur Rahman during the end overs in this IPL. The young seamer from Bangladesh has been carving a reputation for himself of being a death-overs specialist.
5 – Suresh Raina became the fifth batsman and the first Indian to move past the 6000 mark in T20s. A prolific run-getter in the IPL, the 29-year old has joined the likes of Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge, Brendon McCullum and David Warner.
30 – Number of innings between Raina’s previous half-century and this one. In the intervening period, the left-hander’s average was a meager 24.12 at a strike-rate of 128.84.
50 – Gujarat’s total at the end of the Power Play for the loss of only one wicket. Despite a strong start, the middle-order batsmen fell in a heap as the Lions lost momentum.
61 – Total amount of runs scored by the Lions in the last ten overs. Adding to their woes was the regularity with which they lost wickets. In contrast, 74 runs had come from the first ten overs for the loss of only three wickets.
75 – Runs scored by Raina which is the second most without a single six in all IPL matches. Mandeep Singh had eked out 77 runs against the Pune Warriors in the 2013 edition.
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