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Smith, Bravo fail as Lions slump

West Indies' Dwayne Smith flattered to deceive while Dwayne Bravo suffered the indignity of a first ball ‘duck’, as leaders Gujarat Lions suffered a batting collapse to slide to a 23-run defeat to Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League on Sunday May 1, 2016. Photo: CMC
RAJKOT, India—West Indies' Dwayne Smith flattered to deceive while Dwayne Bravo suffered the indignity of a first ball ‘duck’, as leaders Gujarat Lions suffered a batting collapse to slide to a 23-run defeat to Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League on Sunday May 1, 2016.

Chasing 155 at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Lions tumbled to 131 for nine off their 20 overs, to lose only their second game in eight outings this season.

Axar Patel claimed a hat-trick in a spell of quality spin-bowling.

The left-armer took 4-21 in four exquisite overs, taking three wickets in a pivotal seventh over and returning later in the Lions innings to complete the first hat-trick in this year’s tournament.

Smith, with two half-centuries in his last three innings, seemed set to extend that form when he smashed a four and a six but eventually fell cheaply for 15.

Bravo, batting at number six, continued his poor form with the bat when he failed to score.

Lower order batsman James Faulkner top-scored with 32 from 27 balls while Ishan Kishan chipped in with 27 from 24 balls, but they were the only two to pass 20.

Lions slumped to 39 for five at the end of the seventh over and failed to recover despite the best efforts of Australian Faulkner and Kishan.’

Smith banged the second ball of the innings from seamer Sandeep Sharma to the cover boundary and followed up by clearing the ropes at mid-wicket with the final delivery of the over. However, he watched opener Brendon McCullum and captain Suresh Raina (18) fall before following them.

The chase started badly, with McCullum falling in the second over for just a single run, and things never really picked for the home side thanks to the fine bowling of Patel.

Mohit Sharma (3-32) claimed the key wicket of McCullum and also dismissed Raina for 18 before Patel took over, first ending the innings of Smith for 15.

From 34-1, the Lions slumped to 39-5 with Patel also accounting for Dinesh Karthik (2) and Bravo for a duck—both batsmen playing on as the spinner claimed wickets with successive balls at the end of the seventh over.

Patel was taken out of the attack and returned to bowl the 11th over, claiming his hat-trick with the first ball when Ravindra Jadeja was caught behind by Saha for 11 - the batsman appeared bewildered at the decision but could do nothing about it.

Ishan Kishan (27) provided some resistance before he was run out, and James Faulkner (32) and Kumar (15) added 39 for the eighth wicket but the run-rate was always beyond the Lions and their innings came to a close on 131-9.

Bravo’s best score this season has been 22 not out against Rising Pune Supergiants over two weeks ago.

Earlier, Bravo claimed two for 33 from four overs of medium pace as Kings XI rallied 154 all out off 19.5 overs.

The visitors appeared set for a huge total when captain Murali Vijay and Australian opener Marcus Stoinis raced their way to 65 inside the first seven overs, but only two of their remaining nine batsmen would go on to make more than a single run.

Stoinis hit three fours and a six in his 27 off 17 balls, while Vijay held things together with a slightly more patient 55 off 41 - he hit six fours.

After Stoinis was the first man to fall on 65, Kings XI lost three more wickets for the addition of only eight runs with three of the first five wickets going to another left-arm spinner Shivil Kaushik (3-20).

Vijay was the fifth man to fall, with the score on 100, when Kaushik claimed his third victim, but there was middle-order resistance from David Miller (31) and wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha (33).

Praveen Kumar and Bravo quickly mopped up the tail with a couple of wickets apiece in the closing three overs, leaving the Lions a more reasonable target to chase than they might have expected at one point. (CMC)

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