Finch, bowlers give Gujarat Lions their third win
A FINE HALF-CENTURY from Aaron Finch gave Gujarat Lions their third win in the tournament in a humdinger of a match against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium.
The match went down to the last ball, with GL needing one from the last ball with the field up. Jasprit Bumrah pitched one short and Finch pulled it to the mid-wicket boundary to close the match.
Needing 144 for a win, the GL got off to a good start with Finch and skipper Suresh Raina adding 53 for the second wicket in quick time. With the momentum in their favour, the visitors lost path in the middle overs, losing Raina, Karthik and Bravo in quick succession.
GL were comfortably placed at the end of the 18th over, needing 13 off the last two overs, but a tight penultimate over from Mitchell McClenaghan saw the visitors needing 11 off the final over.
At the end of the day, Finch became the difference as he stayed unbeaten on 67 to take his team home.
Earlier in the match, GL captain Raina won the toss and put the home team in, looking to get early breakthrougs, which they did by removing Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya inside four overs.
The home team had a mid-innings collapse as they were reduced to 99/7 but a late innings surge by Kunal Pandya and Tim Southee put something on the board to defend for MI.
It was a good wicket to bat on, but MI couldn't get enough runs in the end as they fell short by 20 runs.
Finch got his third Man of the Match award in consecutive games to put his side right on top of the IPL table.
