IPL Results 2016: Supergiants vs. Lions Score, Revised Points Table and Fixtures

Gujarat Lions beat Rising Pune Supergiants by three wickets in a thriller during Friday's Indian Premier League Twenty20 action, beating the hosts on the very last delivery.

Steven Smith scored 101 from 53 to lead Pune to a solid total of 195, and Gujarat kept the chase close throughout their innings, before James Faulkner scored the winning run.

Here’s a look at the latest IPL standings: 

Pos	Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Net RR	For	Against	Pts
1	GL	7	6	1	+0.038	1158/135.1	1150/134.5	12
2	KKR	6	4	2	+0.611	909/109.1	904/117.1	8
3	MI	8	4	4	-0.104	1286/155.1	1277/152.1	8
4	DD	5	3	2	+0.244	738/92.4	727/94.1	6
5	SRH	6	3	3	-0.086	812/101.1	887/109.2	6
6	RPS	7	2	5	+0.265	1062/125.4	1041/127.1	4
7	RCB	5	2	3	+0.230	953/100.0	899/96.4	4
8	KXIP	6	1	5	-1.174	870/118.4	903/106.1	2

The schedule for the upcoming IPL fixtures:

Date	Time (BST/IST)	Match	Venue
April 30	10.30 a.m./4 p.m.	Delhi Daredevils vs. Kolkata Knight Riders	Delhi
April 30	3:30 p.m./8 p.m.	Sunrisers Hyderabad vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore	Hyderabad
May 1	10.30 a.m./4 p.m.	Gujarat Lions vs. Kings XI Punjab	Rajkot
May 1	3:30 p.m./8 p.m.	Rising Pune Supergiants vs. Mumbai Indians	Pune
May 2	3:30 p.m./8 p.m.	Royal Challengers Bangalore vs. Kolkata Knight Riders	Bengaluru

For the full schedule, visit the IPL's official website. 

Supergiants vs. Lions

Gujarat, 196/7 (Smith 63, Bravo 1-40) beat Pune, 195/3 (Smith 101, Dinda 2-40) by three wickets (with no balls remaining).

Lions won the toss and elected to bowl on a Pune pitch seemingly ready to yield big totals. Lions aggressively chased wickets early, and it yielded results in the third over, as Saurabh Tiwary was run out after scoring just a single run.

INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/Getty Images

But Smith, who replaced the opener, quickly found his groove alongside Ajinkya Rahane (53 from 45), and after a patient start, the two increased the run rate in the middle overs.

By the midway point of the match, Pune had scored 85 runs, but four overs later, when Rahane fell, the hosts had amassed 124. Per cricket writer Ayaz Memon, Smith looked fantastic:

Led by Smith’s ton, Supergiants finished strong, and MS Dhoni added a quick 30 from 18 to set the target at 196.

Dwayne Bravo was the lone bowler to take a quick wicket, although Gujarat did get two run-outs, but he also gave up more runs than any of his team-mates, with 40.

Meanwhile, young spinner Shivil Kaushik caught the attention with an odd action reminiscent of former Proteas star Paul Adams, per the IPL’s official Twitter page:

Adams took to Twitter to express his joy at watching Kaushik, who surrendered 32 runs in his three overs:

Dwayne Smith (63 from 37) and Brendon McCullum (42 from 22) scored just nine runs in their first two overs, but the duo exploded for 23 in the third and quickly pushed Gujarat's run rate over 10.00. The two would combine for 93 until Albie Morkel caught McCullum in the ninth, with Lions on pace to complete the chase.

Thisara Perera bowled Smith in the 11th, however, and Pune immediately attacked the news batsmen, Suresh Raina (34 from 28) and Dinesh Karthik (33 from 20). Gujarat failed to find the boundary in three straight overs, and the run rate soon dropped into the single digits, with 68 needed from the last 42 balls.

INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/Getty Images

But the two recovered just in time, scoring 14 runs in the 16th over to get the chase back on track. Gujarat needed 20 from 12, as the match came down to the very end.

Perera bowled the final over and dismissed Raina and Ishan Kishan on back-to-back deliveries, but it was birthday-boy Faulkner who scored the winning run with a single on the last delivery of the match.

Per ESPN Cricinfo, Dhoni pointed at his team's struggles with the ball as the reason Pune are losing:

"

I feel we definitely need to improve our new-ball bowling. We should crack the code. Otherwise, we will be at the receiving end.

Injuries are beyond control. Still, more than the batting, the bowling has struggled. We have tried five-bowler combinations, six-bowler combinations. It is not happening for us.

"

Ashok Dinda led the team with figures of 2-40, but he, Perera and Morkel all gave up runs in bunches and finished with economy rates in the double digits.

With the win, Lions open up a four-point lead at the top of the IPL standings, and the new franchise has to be considered among the favourites to win this year's title. Lions have lost just one match so far, and their deep lineup gives the team plenty of freedom to be aggressive, even against top bowlers.

Pune's play-off hopes are rapidly disappearing, but there's still time for the other new IPL franchise to turn things around. Friday's close loss will sting, but Pune can take comfort from their fine knock and the fact they kept things this close with the IPL's top team.

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