Gujarat Lions recorded their third straight win when Mumbai Indians batting line-up failed to fire at the Wankhede stadium in successive games. At their IPL-9 match against Gujarat Lions, the hosts struggled to reach 143-8, a score that was clearly not sufficient for them to avert their second straight defeat at home this season.
The Lions scampered to victory by three wickets on the last ball of the 20th over, and the new entrants to the Indian Premier League sit pretty at the top of the eight-team table with six points in three games. On the other hand, MI have recorded two losses and a win in their three matches. Australian opener Aaron Finch, who has already hit a couple of blistering half centuries in the first two games, was in splendid form once again, contributing an unbeaten 67 off 54 balls. His knock included seven boundaries and a six. He put on 53 runs for the second wicket with skipper Suresh Raina, who added 27 runs before his mistimed pull off paceman Mitchell McClenaghan was held by wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel.
The other opener, Brendon McCullum, who has played many a destructive knock in the IPL fell cheaply for six when he hit a low full toss to the point region and was caught brilliantly by Hardik Pandya off paceman Jasprit Bumrah.
After Raina's fall, Mumbai fought back with a couple of quick wickets with Dinesh Karthik (9 runs) and Dwayne Bravo (2 runs) falling in a space of three runs, and the Lions getting reduced to 83-4, but MI's modest total ensured that the visitors never really lost grip on the match.
Debutant all-rounder Krunal Pandya, coming in for Jagadeesha Suchith, got rid of Karthik and conceded 20 runs in his four overs spell.
Earlier, MI, who have relied heavily on their skipper Rohit Sharma over the past few seasons, found themselves on the back foot straight away when he fell for seven in the second over to paceman Dhawal Kulkarni. Having struck a boundary on the first ball, Rohit succumbed while trying to flick off his pads to a delivery that swung in marginally. He was caught at short square leg by Shadab Jakati.
MI's problems were compounded in the fourth over when Hardik was caught at short square leg by Jakati for two, to give Kulkarni his second wicket of the match. This was the flamboyant Pandya's third successive failure in as many matches, and the think-tank now have a major issue to resolve, as the batsman has managed only 20 runs at this crucial position.
Kulkarni, the Mumbai domestic team's warhorse, who replaced allrounder Ravindra Jadeja for the game, was aptly rewarded for his discipline and returned with figures of 2-19 in his allotted four overs.
