The Gujarat Lions have got probably the most feared opening duo in the tournament in Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum once again showed their ability to completely dismantle the opposition bowling attack. After a couple of relatively quiet overs up front, where they were able to score just nine runs; Smith-McCullum hammered every bowler that came in to bowl for the next six overs. The sequence of the runs scored for the next six overs was 24, 15, 14, 10, 12 and 9.

McCullum failed to read a slower ball from Rajat Bhatia and top edged it to short fine leg, but by then the damage was already done. Lions had raced to 93 for 1 in 8.1 overs. Smith continued to smack the bowlers around for few more balls before inside edging a Perrera yorker on to the stumps. Smith struck 63 off 37 balls with the help of nine fours and a six. Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik then batted sensibly to stitch together 51 runs from 33 balls.

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A tidy 18th over by M Ashwin followed by a two-wicket over from Ashoke Dinda kept the Supergiants in the game. And although Lions lost two more wickets in the final over James Faulkner did enough to help Lions cross the line off the last ball of the game, hitting it down to long on when a single was needed. Raina (34 from 28 balls) and Karthik (33 off 20 balls) made important contributions in the latter half of the Lions innings.

With the exception of makeshift opener Saurabh Tiwary being run out for one, the first half was clearly dominated by the Supergiants.