Gujarat Lions V
Rising Pune Supergiants
Rising Pune Supergiants won the toss and elected to bat
MATCH CENTRE
Rising Pune Supergiants
163/5 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions
164/3 (18/20 ov)
Match scheduled to begin at 20:00 local time (14:30 GMT)
Current time 18:14 local, 12:44 GMT | Match begins in: 1:46
Gujarat Lions Squad
SK Raina*, S Ladda, AD Nath, Amit Mishra, DJ Bravo, P Dogra, ER Dwivedi, JP Faulkner, AJ Finch, Ishan Kishan, RA Jadeja, SB Jakati, KD Karthik, S Kaushik, DS Kulkarni, P Kumar, BB McCullum, PJ Sangwan, JN Shah, UA Sharma, DR Smith, DW Steyn, PV Tambe, AJ Tye
Rising Pune Supergiants Squad
MS Dhoni*, Ankit Sharma, B Aparajith, M Ashwin, R Ashwin, AK Bains, R Bhatia, SM Boland, DL Chahar, AB Dinda, F du Plessis, PSP Handscomb, Jaskaran Singh, MR Marsh, JA Morkel, IC Pandey, IK Pathan, NLTC Perera, KP Pietersen, AM Rahane, I Sharma, RP Singh, SPD Smith, SS Tiwary, A Zampa
the love of cricket, they should have held the two games that these two teams will compete in Chennai. That would have been a fitting reception and you'd have known how much people loved their CSK stars. It would have been a sell out crowd if that happened." Minus the three stands, of course?
Heads is the call from MS Dhoni, heads it is. Unchanged Rising Pune Supergiants opt to bat. "I would have batted first as well," Raina says. "The crowd is crazy about MS, but our side as well."
Bharath: "First time a CSK practice match is being televised, only tough thing being the team names. Atleast something to cheer for Chennai fans here."
Gujarat Lions have brought in Pravin Tambe, Shadab Jakati and Akshdeep Nath in place of Pradeep Sangwan, Sarabjeet Ladda and Ishan Kishan
Jay: "From Rajkot - there is more buzz about Bapu's (Jadeja) wedding in city than today's match." You're kidding, right? Or at least I hope you are
Mani: "Never ever thought an IPL team would get such a patronage from Chennai crowd. CSK has grown into something more than a team over the years and it will be almost painful to watch for most of us from Chennai. And it is Tamil New Year too."
"There has been a steady increase in the number of saffron flags in the crowd, with the Gujarat Lions fans trickling in since 5.30 pm," Arun tells me from the space ship press box. "It isn't a full house yet, but you've got to cut them some slack. The SCA stadium isn't the easiest place to reach given that it's more 15 km away from the city. Reminds me of some very long treks I did to get to the stadium in Ranchi last year. Phew."
Arun Venugopal on his first impression of the Rajkot surface, that has traditionally been a paata wicket. "It's a rather bizarre-looking pitch, with a patchy pattern of grass spread across the surface leaving out the good-length area. Evidently, the curator, Dhiraj Parsana, hasn't shaved it off from last evening. Whether it translates into any tangible assistance for the seam bowlers remains to be seen, but purely from an aesthetic sense it's not the prettiest surface."
Juveria: "There's something painful about this clash. Seems like members of a family are facing off against each other. Raina and Jadeja-two of MS Dhoni's proteges teaming up against him. Ir should be spicy."
Aamir Lone: "I hope Dhoni promotes himself up the order to face his new friends-turned-foes and smash them all over the park." Whistle podu
7:00pm The land of Ranjitsinhji, Duleepsinhji, Vinoo Mankad and Salim Durrani is ready to welcome the IPL bandwagon. Hello and welcome to ESPNcricinfo's coverage of the clash between Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants. We're in Rajkot tonight for a Chennai Super Kings reunion. MS Dhoni, Faf du Plessis and R Ashwin on one side. Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Brendon McCullum on the other. Those in Chennai - who are you rooting for tonight? This should be a cracker!
Oh, and just to add, there's a Rajasthan Royals reunion too, with Rahane and Faulkner together at Supergiants. Thanks, all you good folks for reminding me!
While there might not be a conspicuous buzz in the city, there are enough reminders of the tournament having made its way here, writes our correspondent Arun Venugopal. There are billboards at some of the bigger junctions in the city and is understandably an attempt to play up the Ravindra Jadeja factor. Jadeja, after all, hails from this part of the state and plays domestic cricket for Saurashtra. Inside the stadium there is a tall cut-out of Jadeja that screams: "Rockstar."
Pomil Proch: "Raina to face off against Dhoni. Seems like a super twist in a thriller, where a trusted friend turns into a classic foe. Let's hope the encounter is worth the hype"
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