When Gujarat Lions faced off against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in match no. 53 and Kolkata Knight Riders took on the Mumbai Indians in match no 54 on Day 39 of the IPL2017, the results were rather predictable. The results also determined which two teams qualified to join the Mumbai Indians for the playoffs. Here are some highlights of matches 53 and 54 as well as what these results mean for Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings XI Punjab.
The Hyderabad team won the toss and put Gujarat in to bat. The Gujarat batting tottered after a great start by openers Dwayne Smith (54 off 33) and Ishan Kishan (61 off 40). Skipper Suresh Riana, Dinesh Karthik and Aaron Finch departed early as did the lower order batsmen. Ravindra Jadeja was the only other batsmen to get into double figures (20 off 14) and GL was all out for a modest 154.
Skipper David Warner played a characteristically masterful innings (69 off 52) and Shikhar Dhawan chipped in with 18 off 11. It was Vijay Shankar who was the surprise package. His 63 off 44 balls was punctuated with 9 boundaries and he remained not out. SRH overhauled their target with 8 wickets and 11 balls to spare.
The Perfect Catch of the Match award went to Deepak Hooda. The Maximum Sixes award recipient was Ishan Kishan and the Stylish Player of the Day went Vijay Shankar.
The award for the Player of the Match went to Mohammed Siraj for being instrumental in bowling out the GL batsmen. He finished with figures of 4/32 in his 4 overs.
Winning the toss, KKR put Points Table leaders Mumbai Indians in to bat. Saurabh Tiwary notched up a half century (52 off 43) before he was runout. Rohit Sharma (27 off 21), Ambati Rayudu (63 off 37) were the other major contributors to the MI total of 173/5.
In spite of contributions by Gautam Gambhir (21 off 16), Manish Pandey (33 off 33), Yusuf Pathan (20 off 7), Colin de Grandhomme (29 off 16) and Kuldeep Yadav (16 off 15) KKR fell short.
Karn Sharma won the perfect Catch of the Match award. The Stylish Player of the Day award went to Trent Boult for taking two key MI wickets.
Ambati Rayudu got the award for the Maximum Sixes for his three heaves over the fence. He also got the Player of the Match award.
The winning of match 53 means that SRH have qualified for the playoffs. In spite of losing to MI yesterday, KKR also qualifies.
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