RAJKOT, India — Andrew Tye of Australia made a dream Indian Premier League debut with a hat trick to earn the revamped Gujarat Lions a thumping seven-wicket victory over Rising Pune Supergiant on Friday.
Legspinner Samuel Badree also took a hat trick but his impressive figures of 4-9 couldn't stop last year's finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore from losing to Mumbai Indians by four wickets.
Medium-fast bowler Tye, one of the four changes made by the Lions, finished with 5-17 and restricted Supergiant to 171-8.
Veteran Brendon McCullum (49) and Dwayne Smith (47) then carried the Lions to 172-3 in 18 overs for their first win.
Both batsmen tormented Supergiant bowlers with a 94-run opening stand off 53 balls, and negated the spin threat of Imran Tahir, who finished with 1-53.
Tye, who took five wickets in five Twenty20s for Australia, claimed the wickets of Ankit Sharma, Manoj Tiwari, and Shardul Thakur in the last over for his hat trick. Two earlier blows gave him the wickets of Rahul Tripathi (33) and Ben Stokes (25).
Tye could have got one more wicket off his last delivery but Ajay Jadeja, also playing his first game for the Lions, blew a catch at midwicket to dismiss Rahul Chahar.
Supergiant captain Steve Smith, who missed the last game due to illness, top-scored with 43.
It was the Lions' first win in three matches while Supergiant has lost three of its four matches.
Earlier, Kieron Pollard's 70 led Mumbai Indians to a come-from-behind four-wicket win while chasing 143 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Virat Kohli's comeback match from injury.
Badree's maiden hat trick put Mumbai in real trouble at 7-4 and the legspinner finished with 4-9 as he limited Mumbai to 33-5 by the eighth over.
Badree had Parthiv Patel caught close to the wicket; Mitchell McClenaghan mistimed a low full toss and offered a tame catch at long on, and then legspinner completed the hat trick by clean bowling captain Rohit Sharma off a googly.
Pollard and Kurnal Pandya (37 not out) then revived Mumbai Indians chase with a remarkable 93-run stand off 57 balls and batted brilliantly against the two other spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Pawan Negi.
Pollard hit five sixes and three fours before he holed out in the deep with Mumbai Indians needing only 17 runs off 15 deliveries.
"I just thought these are the situations when champions are made and struck to my strength by hitting down the ground," Pollard said of his remarkable innings.
Hardik Pandya then struck the winning six off Tymal Mills as Mumbai Indians reached 145-6 with six balls to spare.
Kohli showed no signs of rustiness from his nearly one-month absence from cricket due to shoulder injury as the Indian master batsman hit 62 off 47 balls with five fours and two sixes.
Gayle, who needed 25 runs to complete 10,000 runs in T20 cricket, fell for 22.
But the dismissal of Kohli and AB de Villiers (19) in successive overs saw Mumbai conceding no boundaries in the last five overs and restricting Royal Challengers to 142-5.
Mumbai lead the early standings after three victories from four matches, while Royal Challengers have one win from four games.
On Saturday, Kolkata Knight Riders host defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab take on Delhi Daredevils in Delhi.
