Cricket: Aussie Andrew Tye takes five-for, hat-trick, $2.8m wicket of Ben Stokes in incredible debut

Aussie quick Andrew Tye made a dream Indian Premier League debut with a hat-trick, a five-wicket haul and the $2.8 million wicket of Ben Stokes to earn the revamped Gujarat Lions a thumping seven-wicket victory over Steve Smith's Rising Pune Supergiant.

Tye, on a relatively modest $103,000 contract and one of the four changes made by the Lions, finished with 5-17 and restricted Supergiant to 8-171. His were the best figures ever from an IPL debutant.

"It was a pretty good feeling," Tye said. "My first game today, to bowl the way I did was pretty good and then a hat-trick in there to top it off was a pretty good feeling as well."
Tye utilised his array of slower balls in his first-game masterclass.

"Every surface is different, so you've just got to figure out which slower ball is probably going to work best on certain surfaces," he said. "Tonight I figured out that it was a bit slow and that the knuckleball would work pretty well."

It was a match in which the Australians shone brightest, Smith top-scoring for Pune with a knock of 43 off 28 balls that included six fours and one six - and also a painful blow to the ribs from paceman Basil Thampi, which dropped him to the ground when he was on 37.

Aaron Finch also blasted 33 not out off 19 deliveries for Gujarat, hitting three fours and two sixes at the end of the innings.

Tye, though, was the star and named man of the match. He claimed the wickets of Ankit Sharma, Manoj Tiwari, and Shardul Thakur in the last over for his hat-trick.

He'd earlier taken the scalps of Rahul Tripathi (33) and England all-rounder Stokes (25, clean bowled), who shattered the record for most expensive international signing this season when he was snapped up by Pune on a $2.81 million contract. Tye could have had one more wicket in his last over but Ajay Jadeja, also playing his first game for the Lions, dropped a catch at midwicket.

Pune's win was sealed thanks to controlled batting from Brendon McCullum (49) and Dwayne Smith (47) who carried the Lions to 3-172 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 wasn't the only bowler to snag a hat-trick on the day though. West Indies 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 the Mumbai Indians by four wickets.

Kieron Pollard's 70 led Mumbai to a come-from-behind four-wicket win while chasing 143 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore in India skipper Virat Kohli's return from injury.

Badree's maiden hat-trick put Mumbai in real trouble at 4-7 and the legspinner finished with 4-9 as he limited Mumbai to5-33 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 the legspinner completed the hat-trick by clean bowling captain Rohit Sharma off a googly.

Pollard and Kurnal Pandya (37 not out) then revived Mumbai'schase 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 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 6-145 with six balls to spare.