IPL 2017: Top 5 moments from GL vs RPS encounters through IPL History
Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiant made their debut in IPL 2016 but in the span of only two seasons, they have become immensely popular amongst the fans. Both teams play an exciting brand of cricket and are loaded with cricket stalwarts.
As a result, whenever both teams have squared off in the IPL, there has been plenty of action and every match has produced memorable events which will never fade away.
Once again tonight, both teams will lock horns and the venue for the encounter is Pune. RPS are yet to get the better of their upcoming opponents having lost all three previous encounters between the two. Here we present the top five moments which occurred during their past encounters.
#1 Jadeja stems the flow of runs (14th April 2016)
In the first encounter between Gujarat and Pune at Rajkot, Ravindra Jadeja’s impressive bowling spell went unnoticed but it was the most decisive performance of the game.
On a good batting wicket, Pune won the toss and elected to bat first. Faf du Plessis exploited the conditions and set a solid platform by scoring an impressive 69 from 43 balls. Ajinkya Rahane (21) and Kevin Pietersen (37) gave able company to du Plessis and after 16 overs, Pune were comfortably placed at 134 for 3.
With experienced finishers at the crease in the form of MS Dhoni and Steve Smith, Pune were eying a big flourish. But Ravindra Jadeja had other ideas. In his second spell in the 16th over, he got rid of Smith on the second ball. For the rest of the over, he kept Dhoni and Mitchell Marsh quiet, conceding only two runs out of which one was a leg bye.
In the 19th over, he choked Marsh by bowling a faster delivery wide outside off stump and then on the fourth ball, he castled the Australian all-rounder. The produced only two runs.
Thus from overs 16 to 20, Pune scored only 29 runs which was the turning point of the game as Lions chased the total in 18 overs. Aaron Finch was the man of the match for his vital 50 runs but the biggest impact was created by Jadeja who gave away only three runs in his final two overs to absorb the momentum. His overall figures for the match read, 4-0-18-2.