IPL 10: Match 3, Who Said What: Gujarat Lions v Kolkata Knight Riders

The 3^rd match between the Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders at Rajkot will be renowned as the Lynn-Gambhir show as they tormented their opposition by a thumping 10-wicket victory over the home team. Gambhir won the toss and elected to field first. Gujarat Lions innings was dominated by Suresh Raina who hit an impressive 68 off 51 balls. He was ably supported by Dinesh Karthik and Brendon McCullum who helped their side to post a competitive total of 184. Amongst the KKR bowlers, Kuldeep Yadav impressed yet again with figures of 2-25 at an economy of 6.25

While chasing, Chris Lynn and Gautam Gambhir came out all guns blazing as they decimated the bowling attack of Gujarat Lions in tandem. Man of the Match, Chris Lynn hit eight massive sixes and four powerful boundaries in his power-packed innings of 93 off 41 balls at an astounding strike rate of 226.82. Gambhir scored a breezy 76 off 48 deliveries which comprised of 12 fours. All the Gujarat Lions bowlers were sent to the cleaners by the newfound pair of Kolkata Knight Riders. In the end, it was a comprehensive victory for KKR as they won by 10 wickets with almost 6 overs to spare. This win will benefit the KKR team when it comes down to the net run-rate situation during the business end of the tournament.

Chris Lynn

The Queenslander at the post-match conference expressed that he is in his comfort zone with the role assigned to him the KKR think-tank. He also emphasized that consistency is the key to making an impact in the tournament. Lynn also mentioned that he’d like to continue with the allotted position as he cherishes opening.

That was my role and I’m comfortable with my role. One good innings doesn’t make a summer. Hopefully I keep it going. If I can continue this momentum, I’d be very pleased. Yes I think so (whether he likes opening), with the ball coming on. I’m happy just to rotate the strike to Gauti when the spinners are on. Really nice wicket. All the grounds now are producing good flat wickets for the batters

Gautam Gambhir

Gambhir praised the effort of his opening partner and hoped that he would continue to bat the way he did today throughout the season. He also applauded the efforts of the bowlers to restrict the demolishing batting line up of Gujarat line up to a chaseable total. The KKR skipper also stressed the importance of holding on to catches and would look to improve on this aspect of the game.

You can’t ask for more. The way Lynn started took a lot of pressure off me. Credit to the bowlers too. To restrict a batting line-up like Gujarat under 200 was fabulous. It’s a luxury for any captain to have such spinners. As I said, we all know what Lynn can do. We have to give him a longer run. Hopefully he can continue his form like this and keep smacking it. If we see the last 2 games, it was the dropped catches which cost the game. We need to be proactive. There’s always room for improvement. Lynn can take on any fast bowlers and we don’t want him to take any risks against spinners. Rest of us can do that. That’s basically our game plan. It’s about starting off well because you don’t want to be under pressure in the business end. Just one day to recover now before a big game against Mumbai.

Suresh Raina

Gujarat Lions leader Raina believed the total posted by the batters was good enough to contain the batsmen of the KKR but the bowlers struggled due to the inexperience in the side. He also yearned for the adept of Jadeja and Bravo in the match. The southpaw also mentioned that they would look to improve on their bowling by leaps and bounds

180 was a good total. We didn’t bowl well in the first six overs. The lack of experience showed in our bowling. I thought the wicket would get slow, but it remained the same. The bowlers need to learn from here if we have to win. Definitely we miss Jadeja. He’s the number one bowler in the world. Dinesh (Karthik) had a good partnership and continued his domestic form. Even Roy and McCullum were good at the top. We have a great batting line-up. We need to learn and improve our bowling.

KKR face Mumbai Indians next in their home ground on April 9, whereas Gujarat Lions would look to win against Sunrisers Hyderabad the next day.