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That's all from our coverage of this contest but the games keep coming in the LLC 2023. The Urbanrisers Hyderabad take on India Capitals tomorrow in what is the first afternoon game of the season - do join us for our coverage of that contest on Sportskeeda with the first ball to be bowled at 3 PM IST. Until then, this is the duo of Arya Sekhar Chakraborty and Sooryanarayanan Sesha taking your leave. See you around soon and thank you for joining us. Adios!
A win on the board for the Giants and the kind that will certainly motivate them to get into a good run of momentum especially on the back of a defeat earlier in the tournament. Another thriller of a chase that so nearly ended well for the Kings but they will look to put it behind them and bounce back soon as they now head to Dehradun for their next round of games.
Parthiv Patel (Gujarat Giants captain): Absolutely (happy), without a doubt. You can't ask for more than this. That's something we wanted to do - we wanted to have runs on the board. We had a great start but we couldn't consolidate on it. We thought we were 15-20 runs short of what we could have got. But as it has been happening in the games here, the pressure is getting the better of the players. We rely very heavily on Chris Gayle, Jacques Kallis and Kevin O'Brien. But once we get that start it's the responsibility of the middle-order to keep that momentum going. Unfortunately we haven't been doing it but hopefully we do it in the coming games. (On Rajat Bhatia) He's a very experienced campaigner, he knows what he's doing. I thought under pressure he bowled a brilliant 17th over. We had to take a chance and we had to with our most experienced campaigner.
Irfan Pathan (Bhilwara Kings captain): First of all, we could have started a bit better. But more importantly, we didn't bat well. It was a terrible shot from my side at that moment and I take responsibility for that. It was a pretty chaseable target. The only thing we can go and think is the start. But when you have someone like Chris Gayle in that mood, it's very hard to contain him. Rahul bowled brilliantly against him. Even though Lendl Simmons was there till the end, no one else gave him that support. Two big injuries to Watson. It was a setback but we are still a good team.
Lendl Simmons is the Player of the Match: Yeah I mean, we kept losing wickets, we needed to build a partnership. I thought we could have got over the line but Sreesanth bowled a fantastic over. Pinal was dismissed at the wrong time. I could have ended better but many games left and we would be hoping to come back strong.
Time for the post-match presentation ceremony with Anjum Chopra.
Match Summary: Gujarat Giants beat Bhilwara Kings by 3 runs.
Wow! That was a special performance if there ever was one by the Giants at the death. They looked down and out but they mustered enough motivation to be able to chip away and ensure that even the unstoppable Lendl Simmons was kept at bay. They didn't have a massive score to play with even if 172 was competitive and didn't they give it everything to haul themselves past the finish line!
Rayad Emrit breathed fire in the powerplay as he nipped two early wickets to leave the Giants in trouble. Simmons looked to transfer pressure back onto the bowlers though with a display of counter-attacking cricket as he had Robin Bist for company with the duo stitching together a decent partnership. Bist couldn't carry on for long although with dew setting in, the ball was skidding on a lot better. Rajat Bhatia's cutters weren't effective enough, not least because he didn't get his radar spot on for a good part of his spell.
A couple of useful partnerships came about with Simmons sauntering along at brisk pace en route to a sublime fifty. Regular wickets were the order of the day as a well-set Pinal Shah was soon followed by Yusuf Pathan. The asking rate was well within control though as Irfan Pathan looked to bat deep with Simmons, who kept finding the fence on a regular basis.
It was post the second timeout that Bhatia got past the Kings skipper before Christopher Barnwell was trapped dead in front by Ishwar Chaudhary, who bowled an outstanding spell in his own right. Suddenly, the pressure told on the Kings instead with Emrit sending down an over for the ages in the 19th, leaving the batting side with 14 runs to get off the last. Jesal Karia ramped S Sreesanth for a six first ball over fine leg but what followed thereafter was a masterful display of death bowling with the Kerala Express nailing his yorkers to perfection. Poor Simmons was eventually left stranded on 99 and it was a heist of some kind that the Giants have pulled off here to register their first win of the tournament!
Take a bow S Sreesanth! Another outstanding yorker and he has held his nerve magnificently to pull a win out of the fire for the Giants! Lendl Simmons is left stranded on 99 but even that won't hurt him as much as his efforts not being able to vault his team over the line. Had he just run harder, he could have got to his ton but that was never on mind. Not ahead of the win for sure. Gujarat Giants scrape home by 3 runs!
20
overs
169/7score
6
0
1
1
1
1
runs
Lendl Simmons*
99(61)
Jesal Karia
10(6)
Sreesanth
1/33
19.6 S Sreesanth to Lendl Simmons, Sreesanth has delivered a superb final over after going for a six first ball. Was on a fuller-length around the off-stump and Simmons only manages to slam that away towards the widish long on region from the inside half of the bat. Gujarat Giants register a hard-fought victory in the end and Sreesanth is pumped up.
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JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi
Lendl Simmons
*
Sreesanth
Video
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