GL vs SRHLive Ball by ball commentary | IPL 2016 Full coverage |
After 8 overs GL 62-2
Dinesh Karthik walks out to bat!
Bipul Sharma to Brendon McCullum, THAT'S OUT!! Caught!!
After 7 Overs GL 55/1
Bipul Sharma into the attack! 5 runs from that over. 55/1 after 7 overs. Good start by Henriques.
Hooda has the ball. Not the time you would want to bowl. McBomb ticking and this being the last over of the PP..but you never know. The umpires have gotten together..change of ball? Doesn't look like. Something else but Bhuvi uses the time to have a chat with Hooda. Now there's a conflab going on, being led by Dharmasena and Warner listening keenly along with Hooda and Bhuvi. Is Hooda not allowed to bowl because of a suspect action? Rule that out too.
After 5 overs, GL 41/1
Brendon McCullum 15(12) Raina 25(14)
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD Playing XI: David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan, Deepak Hooda, Aditya Tare, Naman Ojha, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mustafizur Rahman, Bipul Sharma, Barinder Sran
GUJARAT LIONS Playing XI: Aaron Finch, Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina (C), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Dwayne Bravo, Akshdeep Nath, Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dale Steyn, Pravin Tambe.
Newly-wed Ravindra Jadeja is back for the Lions!
Suresh Raina at the toss, "We would have elected to bat first. I feel there is a little bit of spin in this wicket and our spinners have done well."
David Warner at the toss, "It's a good wicket, we don't feel it will change too much, hence we decide to bowl first."
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD WIN THE TOSS AND ELECT TO BOWL FIRST.
Raina spins the coin, David Warner calls tails, it is tails.
Time for the toss.
Pitch report: It's a good wicket and we should expect runs today. There are a few patches of grass like seen in the last game, the spinners should extract something from this pitch. It's a 160+ wicket for sure. It's also one of the bigger grounds here, at Rajkot. Plenty of 2s on offer.
It's getting to that part of the tournament where your wins count more, the first few games are out of the way, teams will need to string together a few victories to stay in contention for the playoffs. Will we see a team defend their first innings score? We hope so.
While Gujarat have won all three of their matches so far and are sitting pretty near the top of the table, Sunrisers only just managed to climb out of bottom after their win in their last game. While the Lions have beaten Kings XI Punjab, Rising Pune Supergiants and the defending champions Mumbai Indians in their three games, Sunrisers won their first by beating Mumbai after losing their first away and home match of the season to Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders. You can catch the live commentary and match updates for Today’s IPL Match between Gujarat Lions vs Sunrisers Hyderabad here with us.
TEAM NEWS: Major team news for Gujarat Lions is the fitness of Aaron Finch. He was hobbling towards the end of the last game and if he isn't fit, Dwayne Smith is likely to partner Suresh Raina. After being given the last game off for his wedding, Ravindra Jadeja is expected to slot back into the side. With Dhawal Kulkarni performing so well in the last game, Jadeja is likely to come in for Akshdeep Nath.
After a four-day break table-topping Gujarat Lions will be hoping to extend their winning start to the season, as they take on a resurgent Sunrisers Hyderabad, who got their first win of the tournament by beating Mumbai Indians on Monday.
STAT ATTACK: If Aaron Finch plays he will be looking to equal an IPL record. He has won three successive Man-of-the-Match awards so far, in this tournament and the overall record is four.
As far as the Sunrisers are concerned, they are unlikely to change their winning line-up from Monday, so Shikhar Dhawan will need to find his form quickly.
PITCH AND WEATHER: The pitch at Rajkot has usually exhibited dual nature. At the start of the Ranji season, it was a square turner but as the season progressed, it was a featherbed that was perfect for batting. Even if it turns a bit, the pitch for tonight's game is expected to be good for batting. And dew is unlikely to be a factor. In the last game, batting was difficult towards the end, so it is important to capitalise on the powerplay.
With plenty of questions still surrounding the Sunrisers Hyderabad, it is fair to say that the Gujarat Lions are clear favourites going into the contest. Yet, such is the fickle nature of the format that you wouldn't bet against the Sunrisers winning, or at the least running the Lions close.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: If the Gujarat Lions have been all about one man in the batting line-up, it has been the same case for the Sunrisers, who have relied heavily on their captain, David Warner to fire, to have any chance of winning the match. In the last game against the Mumbai Indians, he scored more than half the runs and almost won the game single-handedly with the bat. But what was even more impressive in that clash was the performance of the bowling trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran and Mustafizur Rahman. While the former and the latter are both established in the IPL and in international cricket, Sran's control at the death and his variations helped him claim his career-best T20 figures. With Nehra coming back to full fitness, it will be interesting to see how the Sunrisers go about tweaking their bowling and that is even before mentioning Trent Boult, who is yet to get a game this year. But the big problem for the Hyderabad franchise has been their batting. Eoin Morgan hasn't been in sparkling form ever since the World T20, Moises Henriques hasn't really delivered but most of all is Shikhar Dhawan's poor form that has all but put on the fringes of the first team. In the absence of Yuvraj Singh, Sunrisers lack the middle-order hitting power and while Deepak Hooda smoked a few in the last game, he still is nowhere near as consistent as the Indian all-rounder.
GUJARAT LIONS: While all eyes were on Brendon McCullum, who was going to be playing his first major tournament after his retirement from international cricket and Suresh Raina, IPL's leading run-scorer who was going to play for an IPL team that wasn't Chennai Super Kings, before the start of the tournament, it has been Aaron Finch, who has led the batting with aplomb. Three consecutive fifties for the Australian opener has meant that whether it is chasing a target or setting one, Gujarat have got off to a good start thanks to his exploits. While Finch has led the batting line-up, it has been the DJ Bravo show in the bowling department. The all-time leading T20 wicket-taker has brought his complete bag of tricks to the IPL so far and has been a joy to behold. Whether it is executing the yorker, bouncer, slower cutter, slower bouncer or the run-of-the-mill back of a length ball, the West Indian all-rounder has delivered it all with great skill. And it is he who will be crucial once again as they face a top-heavy Sunrisers batting line-up. The form of the age-less Pravin Tambe and recently married Ravindra Jadeja have meant that it when Bravo doesn't get wickets, the Lions still skittle the opposition for a low target thanks to those two. And they will be hoping to do the same to Sunrisers, who apart from David Warner, don't have too many in-form batsmen.
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