Hat-trick hero, Axar Patel, helps Punjab pip Gujarat

A hat-trick from Axar Patel - the first of the 2016 season - helped Punjab comfortably trump Gujarat by 23 runs in the Indian Twenty20 competition in Rajkot on Sunday.

Suresh Raina, Gujarat's captain, won the toss and opted to bowl first, but his bowlers found it difficult to dislodge Punjab's openers - Murali Vijay and Marcus Stoinis. The duo added 65 runs for the first wicket in 6.4 overs. Stoinis eventually fell for a 17-ball 27. His departure prompted a collapse, as Punjab lost Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Gurkeerat Singh an over apart.

In the ninth over, Punjab had lost four wickets for 73. The remaining Punjab batsmen sought a cautious approach thereafter, only David Miller and Wriddhiman Saha added some lower-middle order stability that helped their side post 154 in their innings.

Defending a small total, Punjab's bowlers needed to make early in roads. Sandeep Sharma did just that and dismissed the dangerous Brendon McCullum for just one in the second over of the chase. Three overs later Sharma accounted for Raina.

Gujarat looked to in form Dwayne Smith and Dinesh Karthik to bail them out of trouble, but that's when Patel produced his magic to set Gujarat on the back foot. Smith was his first victim, off the third ball of the seventh over, as he miscued a lofted shot straight to long-off.

Patel's arm ball then penetrated Karthik's defences - off the fifth ball- and rattled the stumps. He got the last ball of the over to skid off the surface to rattle Dwayne Bravo's stumps. The lanky left-arm spinner celebrated with the "Champion" jig.

Ravindra Jadeja and Ishan Kishan then added 18 runs for the sixth wicket, before Patel was reintroduced in to the attack three overs later and he struck immediately, by dismissing Jadeja, to complete his hat-trick. Patel's figures of four for 21 ended any hope of a Gujarat recovery, as they managed just 131 in reply.