IPL 2016 - Stats: Dwayne Smith's amazing spell helps Gujarat Lions maul KKR
With teams looking to control their own fate by claiming the minimum eight victories required to challenge for a play-off spot, the contest between Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knightriders carried extra significance. A win for either team would almost assure a place in the final four and set them up to even finish in the top-two.
Suresh Raina returned from paternity leave and won the toss on a green top. However, the surprise package came from nowhere with part-time medium pacer Dwayne Smith scalping four wickets to stun the Knightriders. Yusuf Pathan’s painstaking knock saved his team the blushes by helping them crawl to a decent score.
Despite losing Smith off the very first ball, Gujarat Lions rode on their skipper’s timely return to form to brush aside Gautam Gambhir’s side and jump to second spot in the league table.
Let us take a look at the most pertinent statistics from the influential encounter.
0 – T20 matches hosted by Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, before this fixture. In fact, this is also the first floodlit match at the venue.
1 – Bowling performances better than Smith in this IPL. Only Adam Zampa of Rising Pune Supergiants with his six for 19 has delivered a more seething spell.
1 – Raina reclaimed his position as the leading run scorer in IPL history. But, he has played 8 more matches than Kohli who had gone past him last night.
2 – Instances when KKR have not managed to cross sixty from the first ten overs in this IPL. Both have come against the Lions with the 57 at home followed by only 55 in the return leg.
2 – Number of four-wicket hauls which have come at a lesser economy rate than Smith’s effort. Anil Kumble took 5/5 and Rohit Sharma registered figures of 4/6 in 2009.
2 – Players who have posted 300-plus runs in every IPL season, so far. Despite coming into the competition with a dire international season, Raina joined Rohit in achieving this record.
4 – Wickets picked up by Smith alongside conceding only eight runs. He posted his career best figures in T20s after eclipsing a previous spell of 4/9.
5 – Indian batsmen with 5000 runs or more in T20s. Robin Uthappa joined the likes of Kohli, Raina, Rohit and Gambhir to complete the landmark.
18 – Dot balls bowled by Smith which is incidentally the most by any bowler in a match this season.
21 – Run-outs for Gambhir in T20s which is the most for any batsman. With four run-outs occurring in this IPL alone, he overtook Mahela Jayawardene to top the ignominious list.
33 – The Green Park Stadium became the 33rd venue to host an IPL match. With 11 of those stadiums in South Africa which hosted the 2009 edition, Kanpur became the 22nd Indian venue to participate in the cash-rich league.
33 – Innings after which Smith picked up three or more wickets in a T20 game. The last such effort came way back in 2013. Overall, he has picked up 95 wickets from 252 matches.
4000 – Raina joined Indian team-mate Kohli in breaching the 4000-run mark in IPL. The left-hander took 37 innings to jump from 3000 to 4000 runs while the RCB skipper took just 18 innings.