Calcutta/Rajkot: Back in 2014, it was an unbelievable catch which Chris Lynn had taken towards the end that won Kolkata Knight Riders a game in the United Arab Emirates. Three years later, the Queenslander showed how devastating and destructive he could be with the bat.

Thanks to his mind-blowing 41-ball 93 not out and captain Gautam Gambhir's unbeaten 48-ball 76, the Knight Riders lynched the Gujarat Lions to register a 10-wicket win with 31 balls to spare and get their IPL X campaign off to a rousing start at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Friday. This was the highest total chased down with all 10 wickets in tact in T20 cricket, while it was also the biggest stand for the Knight Riders for any wicket.

Asked to bat, the Lions had put up an imposing 183/4 on a pretty good deck for batsmen. But promoted up the order, Lynn took on the rival bowlers from the very first over of the Knight Riders' reply and went on with his brutal hitting relentlessly. In fact, Lynn's uninterrupted onslaught made matters easier for Gambhir as he too could play freely, unleashing the strokes whenever the ball was in his zone.

Not having a specialist overseas bowler was definitely a minus point for the Lions, but Lynn's promotion and amazing stroke-play are things that also caught the hosts by surprise. Well and truly, IPL has found another star in the form of Lynn.

Earlier, captain Suresh Raina led from the front with an unbeaten 68 to propel the Lions past 180, which certainly looked a pretty challenging total then. Raina top-scored for the hosts and played 51 balls during his knock which was studded with seven boundaries. Besides Raina, Dinesh Karthik (47) and Brendon McCullum (35) played good hands for the Lions. While for the Knight Riders, chinaman Kuldeep Yadav picked up two wickets giving away only 25 runs.

Put in to bat, Englishman Jason Roy (14) made a breezy start to his IPL debut, smacking two fours off Trent Boult in the opening over. But Roy's stay came to and end in the fourth over when he got a leading edge of a short delivery from Piyush Chwala as Yusuf Pathan did well enough to hold on to the chance.