Dinesh Karthik led the way with a fluent half-century as Gujarat Lions snapped their three-match losing streak to reclaim the top spot with a comfortable five-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL T20 cricket match on Sunday.
Chasing 159 on a slow Eden surface, the duo of Dwayne Smith (27) and Brendon McCullum (29) handed Lions a perfect launchpad with 42 from 5.3 overs.
The duo fell in space of 15 runs when Shakib Al Hasan and Piyush Chawala took one each but it was sheer elegance from wicketkeeper batsman Karthik who scored a 29-ball 51 that had eight fours and a six to set up the chase.
After Karthik was stumped, Aaron Finch’s hit 29 from 10 balls (3×4, 2×6) before being run out. Ravindra Jadeja sealed the chase with two overs to spare as he launched a six over long-on.
The Lions thus returned to winning ways after a hat-trick of defeats as they jumped to the top of the table with 14 points from 11 matches, while KKR were pushed to the third behind Sunrisers Hyderabad on net run rate.
Feature image source: IPL