The Rising Pune Supergiant have been one of the best teams, of late, in IPL 2017. Someone or the other is always standing tall for RPS, and against Gujarat Lions on Monday, it was Ben Stokes, who scored a wonderful ton to help his team win IPL 2017 Match 39 by five wickets. It was RPS' fifth win in their last six matches.
The left-hander might not have impressed much with the bat, earlier, in IPL 2017, but he came with one of his best T20 innings in Pune. However, it was not only about Stokes' batting as Imran Tahir was brilliant with the ball in the first innings, picking up three wickets as well.
Chasing 162 runs, one expected RPS to win the match with decent ease. It was not to be as RPS suffered the worst possible start, losing their key players, Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith in the first over of the match. RPS were under pressure early on, and with Manoj Tiwary out for a duck, the task looked uphill.
Ben Stokes (103*, 63b, 7x4, 6x6) was at the batting crease and he hit some wonderful shots to the fence, and brought much-needed relief for the home fans. Just when one thought that RPS were rebuilding their innings, there was a huge mix up between Rahul Tripathi and the Englishman, leading the run out of the Indian player.
With MS Dhoni and Stokes at the batting crease, there was some huge pressure on the duo to score bulk of the runs for the home team to emerge victorious. Dhoni was not able to rotate the strike early in his innings, but Stokes was making up for the dot balls with some lusty blows.
The required run rate was hovering around the 10 runs mark. Hence, Dhoni also had to join into the act too. Stokes completed his fifty from 38 balls, but he was aware of the need to stay longer at the batting crease.
With more than 12 runs required per over, Dhoni changed gears in the 15th over, showing some urgency to score quick runs. He also hit James Faulkner for a six, which was much-needed by the home team. Stokes also did the same in next over, smashing Dwayne Smith for a six and four as well.
However, they were still required to strike at 11 runs per over in the last four, and Dhoni, while trying to hit a six, was caught in the deep. Now, all eyes were on Stokes, who had to finish the game for RPS.
The game was turning out to be interesting as RPS had to score 25 runs from the last two overs, and Stokes, with some brilliant fours and sixes, alongside Dan Christian helped Smith's side reach the target in 19.5 overs.
Earlier, the Gujarat Lions, after being asked to bat first, got off to some decent start with both Brendon McCullum and Ishan Kishan dominating with the bat. It was the youngster, who was overshadowing McCullum, scoring runs all around the park.
With the introduction of Imran Tahir, Kishan (31, 24b, 3x4, 2x6) felt it was time to take on the South African, but was dismissed soon. The left-hander had provided the base for the rest of the GL batsmen to fire and put a massive score on the board.
But, things did not as per GL plan, as Raina was run out without making much impact in the game. There was a mini collapse in the middle with Finch and Smith also back in the dugout within the first ten overs.
Scoring was never a problem for GL as they had scored 94, but they were in trouble with four wickets down. They completed their 100 runs in the 11th over, and McCullum also lost his wicket in the next over.
McCullum (45, 27b, 5x4, 2x6) had to stay at the crease and form a solid partnership, but it was his attacking intent, which let him down. But then, McCullum basically does not change his game much.
The lower middle order GL batsmen could not stamp their authority, but it was some good batting from Dinesh Karthik in the final few overs, as the wicket-keeper helped them score 161 runs. That target, however, did not prove to be enough as Stokes' brilliance led RPS to a huge victory.
RPS vs Gujarat Lions IPL 2017 scorecard:
Toss: RPS won the toss and chose to bowl.
Gujarat Lions: 161 all out in 19.5 overs.
RPS: 167/5 in 19.5 overs.
Result: RPS won the match by five wickets
Bowling: RPS: Javed Unadkat 3.5-0-29-3; Washington Sundar2-0-12-0; Ben Stokes 4-0-36-0; Imran Tahir 4-0-27-3; Shardul Thakur 3-0-25-1; Dan Christian 3-0-27-1.
Gujarat Lions: Pradeep Sangwan 4-0-38-2; Basil Thampi 4-0-35-2; James Faulkner 2.5-0-30-0: Anki Soni 4-0-16-0: Ravindra Jadeja 2-0-19-0; Dwayne Smith 3-0-26-0;
Fall of wickets: Gujarat Lions: 1-55, Ishan Kisha (5.6 ov), 2-71, Raina (7.6 ov), 3-94, Finch (9.5 ov), 4-94, Smith (9.6 ov), 5-109, McCullum (11.5 ov), 6-135, Jadeja (14.6 ov), 7-146, Faulkner (17.2 ov), 8-148, Sangwan (17.5 ov), 9-161, Karthik (19.4 ov), 10-161, Ankit Soni (19.5 ov)
RPS: 1-4, Rahane (0.4 ov), 2-8, Smith (0.6 ov), 3-10, Tiwary (1.3 ov), 4-42, Tripathi (5.3 ov), 5-118, Dhoni (16.1 ov)
'
