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The Gujarat Lions regained their top spot courtesy a team effort that saw them beat high-flying Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 wickets. Having lost their last match at home to Sunrisers Hyderabad, Suresh Raina's team got back to winning ways in style.
Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first on a good batting surface in Rajkot. Looking to make it 3 wins while batting first, RCB posted a challenging total of 180 with the help of their captain's maiden century in the IPL.
The home crowd, however, were treated to a spectacular run chase as everyone contributed in the Lions' win. There were several moments in the match that don't fade away, quite like the Axe Signature range of body perfumes. Here are 5 of the best:
Virat's fitting tribute to Sachin
A talent like Virat Kohli not having a century in the IPL is a travesty. Time and again, he has missed out on the elusive three-digit mark, having scored in the 90s plenty of times, a reminder of a certain No. 10 of the Indian team.
He finally put it right today by scoring a well-paced hundred that got the Royal Challengers Bangalore to a respectable total. And what a day he chose to reach the milestone – Sachin Tendulkar's birthday.
On the day when the god of cricket turns 43, Virat gave him the perfect tribute by ending his innings not out on 100 off just 63 balls. He treated the bowlers with disdain and even put the good balls beyond the ropes. With 11 fours and 1 six, he gave the man he considers his idol, the perfect birthday present.
KL Rahul shows his class
After being dropped for Mandeep Singh due to a poor performance in his previous match, it seemed like KL Rahul's promised talent would not be on show for a while. However, the man from Karnataka seemed to have luck on his side as Mandeep suffered an injury in the warm-up and Rahul was called up once again.
He grabbed his second chance with both hands by smashing his way to a well-deserved half-century, giving Kohli the ideal support. His 51 off 35 balls was littered with 5 fours and 3 sixes that helped RCB keep their run rate up despite the loss of early wickets.
On a day when AB de Villiers failed, KL Rahul showed his class with this fine knock. He has definitely sealed his place in the team for the upcoming matches.
Bravo's no-show
Dwayne Bravo and death overs is a match made in heaven. His bowling variation is such that the death overs seem like a bowlers' paradise instead of a batting heaven. Or it was till today.
The West Indies all-rounder was hammered all across the field by an in-form RCB batting line-up as he returned wicketless from his quota of four overs. The usually reliable Bravo conceded 43 runs, the most from his team.
The player who can seemingly do it all, seemed helpless at the hands of Kohli and KL Rahul, especially in the final over, where he conceded 17 runs.
He hit the winning runs for Gujarat Lions would seem as scant consolation as he looks to bounce back sooner rather than later.
Baz and Smith's blistering start
Dwayne Smith was called into the Gujarat Lions starting line-up and he didn't need any time to acclimatize himself. After showing his talent with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, the man from West Indies proved his worth with Gujarat Lions against RCB.
Starting off the fireworks from the first ball, Smith gave the Bangalore bowlers no respite as he hammered his way to 32 off just 21 balls, which included 2 sixes and 3 fours.
Well, if the visitors thought getting him out would mean the end of the carnage, they were largely mistaken! Brendon McCullum played a rather subdued innings till the time Smith was batting, but his departure worked as a spark for the wicket-keeper batsman.
The Kiwi went all guns blazing after his fellow opener was sent back to the pavilion. From playing at 13 off 12 balls, Baz went on to score 29 in the next 12 balls before he fell to Tabraiz Shamsi.
Tabraiz Shamsi makes his claim for SA debut
In a team comprising of foreigners like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson, it takes a monumental effort to come up as the best foreigner of the match. And Tabraiz Shamsi did precisely that.
The spinner spun his web around the Gujarat batsman, who had a tough night against the South African. Having not played for South Africa so far, Shamsi made his case to the selectors with bowling figures of 1/21 in his quota of 4 overs.
On a batting surface which saw a total of 362 runs being scored in 40 overs, Shamsi, playing in only his second IPL match, outfoxed the dangerous looking McCullum. He harassed the home batsmen constantly, who had no answer to the chinaman.
Despite ending up on the losing side, he made a case for a spot, not only in the RCB team, but also the South African XI.
