Raina does a Jonty, Rahane spoilt for choice

Ajinkya Rahane set off for a regulation single, having bunted Praveen Kumar's inswinger towards point. A new opening partner, however, added to the chaos that followed. Saurabh Tiwary was a little late responding to the call, by which time Suresh Raina had swooped on the ball. Tiwary sped up, but he had too much ground to cover. Raina spotted that and chose not to throw the ball at the stumps. He did, however, throw his entire body at them to make sure Gujarat Lions had their first wicket. One of the stumps had fallen on Raina's face, but the pain may well have been worth it.

Shivil Kaushik, on T20 debut, quickly realised the value of a millimetre. Kaushik had Steven Smith bowled in his second over, leading the batsman to play across the line and chop the ball onto his stumps. The 20-year old chinaman bowler let out a loud roar and was promptly lost in a team huddle. Less than a minute later, though, he began to worry. The on-field umpire wanted to check if the ball was legal and replays showed it wasn't. Kaushik had overstepped and Smith smacked the free-hit for a six.

Smith was beaten by a slower delivery that dipped on him, but he wanted to capitalise on the opportunity for a leg-bye. The non-striker Rahane obliged and was halfway down before either of them realised the danger. Dwayne Bravo covered roughly the same distance as Rahane to get to the ball, turned, took an extra second to get his aim right and fired a throw that flattened the stumps at the bowler's end. The 'champion' dance followed as his team-mates joined him.

Lions needed three runs off two balls. After plenty of deliberation, MS Dhoni had his field ready. James Faulkner drilled a full delivery to long-off. He couldn't have picked a better fielder than Rahane.

Rahane did well to run in and collect the ball, but lost a split second deciding which end to throw. Faulkner was struggling as he turned for the second. Praveen Kumar wasn't faring any better. It seemed as though all Rahane had to do was pick an end and make sure his throw was accurate to effect the run-out and perhaps change the game. But the pressure got to him. Rahane's throw was too wide to dismiss Praveen at the bowler's end and too slow to threaten Faulkner. As quick as Rahane was quick to apologise, he couldn't escape a Dhoni lecture after Faulkner hit the winning run.