IPL 2017, RPS VS GL: ANDREW TYE FIFER PUSH THE LIONS TO THEIR FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON

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Andrew Tye’s brilliant spell of 5/17, including a hattrick, guided Gujarat Lions to a seven-wicket win over Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017 Indian Premier League. This was GL’s first win this season

Gujarat Lions never looked uncomfortable while chasing down the target of 172 set by Rising Pune Supergiant. Both the openers Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith showed some power hitting as they build a partnership of 94 runs and took the match away from RPS. 

Raina: Losing 2 games it was very difficult for us. To come back strongly we needed a good team performance. AJ bowled brilliantly. I’m very happy for him, he’s a smart cricketer and varies his pace smartly in the death overs. Jason missed out today, but Baz and Smith did the job for us. They had good partnerships last year also. It’s a good team effort today. They did it for so many years for CSK and now they are doing it for us. Very happy. God has been really kind to me, 150th game and can’t ask for more (on claiming a win in his 150th game in the IPL).

Andrew-Tye awarded the Man of the Match

Andrew-Tye: It’s a good format of cricket. I’m a traditionalist and I would love to play Test cricket, but I loved my slower balls, they worked for me well tonight. Streaky (Heath Streak) does a good job with us. He (Brad Hodge) is a good coach and he lets us do our job. Every wicket is different around the world. Pretty emotional, you gotta assess the conditions and see which ball works for you. Knuckle ball was my favourite. (chuckles)

Steven Smith: Not really, the wicket didn’t change over the course of 40 overs. I wasn’t pretty worried about it. We were in a good position with the bat and lost wickets in clumps. Probably 20 runs short and it wasn’t enough tonight. It was talked (taking pace off the ball). Tough to bowl to those two (Dwayne Smith and Baz). They set the tone and when they get going, it’s hard to stop. One of the disadvantages of being a new team is that we are still trying to establish our best XI.