RAJKOT: Andrew Tye of Australia made a dream Indian Premier League debut with a hat trick to earn the revamped Gujarat Lions a thumping seven-wicket victory over Rising Pune Supergiant yesterday.
Legspinner Samuel Badree also took a hat trick but his impressive figures of 4-9 couldn’t stop last year’s finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore from losing to Mumbai Indians by four wickets.
Medium-fast bowler Tye, one of the four changes made by the Lions, finished with 5-17 and restricted Supergiant to 171-8.
Veteran Brendon McCullum (49) and Dwayne Smith (47) then carried the Lions to 172-3 in 18 overs for their first win.
Both batsmen tormented Supergiant bowlers with a 94-run opening stand off 53 balls, and negated the spin threat of Imran Tahir, who finished with 1-53.
Tye, who took five wickets in five Twenty20s for Australia, claimed the wickets of Ankit Sharma, Manoj Tiwari, and Shardul Thakur in the last over for his hat trick. Two earlier blows gave him the wickets of Rahul Tripathi (33) and Ben Stokes (25).
Tye could have got one more wicket off his last delivery but Ajay Jadeja, also playing his first game for the Lions, blew a catch at midwicket to dismiss Rahul Chahar.
Supergiant captain Steve Smith top-scored with 43.
Comeback
Earlier, Kieron Pollard’s 70 led Mumbai Indians to a come-from-behind four-wicket win while chasing 143 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Virat Kohli’s comeback match from injury.
Badree’s maiden hat trick put Mumbai in real trouble at 7-4 and the legspinner finished with 4-9 as he limited Mumbai to 33-5 by the eighth over.
Badree had Parthiv Patel caught close to the wicket; Mitchell McClenaghan mistimed a low full toss and offered a tame catch at long on, and then legspinner completed the hat trick by clean bowling captain Rohit Sharma off a googly.
Pollard and Kurnal Pandya (37 not out) then revived Mumbai Indians chase with a remarkable 93-run stand off 57 balls.
Pollard hit five sixes and three fours before he holed out in the deep with Mumbai Indians needing only 17 runs off 15 deliveries.
Hardik Pandya then struck the winning six off Tymal Mills as Mumbai Indians reached 145-6 with six balls to spare.
BRIEF SCORES:
Gujarat Lions 172 for 3 (McCullum 49, Smith 47) beat Rising Pune Supergiant 171 for 8 (Smith 43, Tye 5 for 17) by seven wickets.
Mumbai Indians 145 for 6 (Pollard 70, Krunal 37*, Badree 4-9) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 142 for 5 (Kohli 62, McClenaghan 2-20) by four wickets.
Playing today: Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad (at Kolkata, starting 1.30pm Bahrain time)
Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab (at Delhi, starting 5.30pm Bahrain time
&uuid=(email))