Gujarat Lions (GL) skipper Suresh Raina played a remarkable unbeaten knock of 53 to steer his team to a six-wicket win over former champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 at the Green Park Stadium here Thursday. Earlier, Raina won the toss and electing to bowl first restricted KKR to a paltry total of 124-8. Yusuf Pathan was the top scorer with 36 runs, while Dwayne Smith managed to claim four wickets by giving away just eight runs in his quota of four overs. GL was off to the worst possible start, as it lost Smith off the very first delivery, by Ankjit Rajpoot, after being caught behind by Robin Uthappa. With 18 runs on the board Brendon McCullum fell for six to the mystery spinner Sunil Narine, after being trapped leg-before in the second over. With 20 runs added to the total, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik fell for just 12 to Morne Morkel —bowled with a perfect in-swinger. Nevertheless, it was followed by a decent 59-run stand between Raina and Aaron Finch, as Raina contributed 23, while Finch contributed 26. Finch fell for 26 at the score of 97 off an unfortunate run out. Meanwhile, it was the final pair of Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, who allowed GL to see of the game, as Raina also brought up his half-century off 33 deliveries, including seven boundaries and a six, along with a strike rate of 158. He also became the leading run scorer in the tournament till date, as he also surpassed the 4,000-run mark. GL finally registered a convincing six-wicket win over KKR in 134.3 overs. Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 124-8 in 20 overs (Yusuf Pathan 36; Dwayne Smith 4-8). Gujarat Lions 124-4 in 13.3 overs (Suresh Raina 53 not out; Sunil Narine 1-30).
