KOLKATA Knight Riders took down a target of 184 without losing a single wicket – a world record in T20 cricket – and the man who did the heavy lifting was Chris Lynn.
Promoted to open the batting for only the third time in 87 T20 matches, he equalled the franchise’s second-fastest fifty – off 19 balls, put on the IPL’s highest opening partnership of 184* with Gautam Gambhir and finally secured victory with 5.1 overs to spare.
The result, as emphatic as it was, highlighted Gujarat Lions’ weak bowling attack and the mistake they made by choosing four opening batsmen as their overseas players.
Lynnsanity – 93 not out off 41 balls, eight sixes, six fours
Making Lynn bat as high as possible makes sense. He smacks fast bowling at an average of 43.10 and at a run-rate of 10.19 an over. At his most recent T20 tournament – the Big Bash – he hit a boundary every four balls.
Brendon McCullum, his captain at the Brisbane Heat, told the commentators that the idea of bowling a good length to Lynn was a non-starter – the very length that makes Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni potent. As a result, Gujarat Lions’ best bowlers were used for only three out of the first six overs.
Left-arm wrist-spinner Shivil Kaushik, in only his second season of the IPL, and Manpreet Gony, playing in the tournament for the first time since 2013, were asked to pick up the slack in the fielding restrictions. It led to a Knight Riders record as they made their highest score in the Powerplay – 73 runs.

Gambhir’s rage – 76 not out off 48 balls, 12 fours
Gambhir actually outscored Lynn at the start, so much that he made his best score after six overs in the IPL. Of the 40 runs he made in this period, 16 came in a single over off Kaushik, whose unorthodox bowling action tends to affect his control.
Kaushik was perhaps introduced into the attack to mess with Lynn’s timing, but Gambhir, being an excellent player of spin, took charge. The head-to-head on the night read 23 runs off 13 balls with five fours.
With both ends leaking runs, Lions were simply unsure of what to do. And that was all dandy for the Knight Riders captain, who racked up his 32nd IPL fifty, two short of David Warner’s record.