IPL 10, Match 28, MI v RPS Review: Rising Pune Supergiant beat Mumbai Indians in the second Maharashtra derby game

After struggling with the bat in the first seven matches Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma finally got back amongst the runs at the Wankhede Stadium but his half century couldn’t win his team the game. Rising Pune Supergiant is now the only team to beat Mumbai in the tournament and they have done it twice.

Needing 17 runs in the last over MI would have fancied their chances with two big hitters Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya in the middle. Jaydev Unadkat definitely had a tough task at hand but an uncertain shot from Pandya on the first ball and Ben Stokes took a really good catch at deep extra cover. Despite being hit for a six in the next ball the right-arm pacer made a great comeback to dismiss Rohit on the 4th ball to seal the win for RPS.

Earlier in the day Rohit won the toss and decided to field first considering the impact dew would have in the second inning. While Pune fielded the same line-up there was a forced change for MI as Krunal Pandya wasn’t available for the game due to an injury. That earned leg-spinner Karn Sharma his first cap for the team.

Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi got them off to a decent start getting over the 50-run mark though slow but without losing a wicket. The duo added 76 runs for the first wicket before Rahane was dismissed caught and bowled by Karn. Tripathi continued to impress but fell five short of another half century; his runs came at a strike rate of 145.16.

Smith was finally dismissed by an Indian bowler and cheap as he missed a half tracker from Harbhajan Sigh to see his bails fly off. This was the offspinner’s 200th T20 wicket and the turbanator was ecstatic. Ben Stokes once again failed to make it count with the bat and was cleaned up attempting a slog against Mitchell Johnson on 17.

Manoj Tiwary and MS Dhoni the pair that got Pune over the line in the last game was at the crease in the last phase and the team would have certainly fancied getting more than 170. But Jasprit Bumrah being Jasprit Bumrah bowled well and had Dhoni under pressure, the former RPS skipper under-edged one back onto his stumps to end his 11-ball stay for just 7.

Tiwary hit four boundaries in his 13-ball 22 and gave them a push towards the end and the Supergiant team managed to post 160/6 in 20 overs.

Mumbai stuck with Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel at the top, the chase wasn’t certainly steep considering the depth the home team has in the batting line-up. Stokes brought in the 5th over gave the team the break through immediately sending back Buttler for 17. Nitish Rana failed for the second time in two games as he was accounted for by Daniel Christian.

Parthiv became Washington Sundar’s first IPL wicket rather maiden T20 wicket as well. Steve Smith held back his leg-spinner Imran Tahir who has been the lead wicket-taker for his team until Rohit was in the middle and the ploy was to put the MI skipper under pressure as he has shown vulnerability against the wrist spinners.

To protect their power hitters the Mumbai management also promoted Karn Sharma ahead of Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya. The strategy neither succeeded nor failed as the pinch hitter scored 11 runs in 10 balls before becoming Stokes’ second prey. Pollard looked to go big against Tahir and holed out in the deep to Smith who managed to hold onto the catch though not as cleanly as he would have liked.

Rohit meanwhile was scoring runs at the other end and that kept Mumbai in the hunt. Hardik also hit a couple of boundaries and it was MI’s game to lose. Stokes bowled an excellent 19th over spending just 7 runs and the home team needed 17 from the last six balls, Unadkat saved 3 runs from that and kept his team at the 4th spot in the points table with 8 points.

Brief Scores:

Rising Pune Supergiant: 160/6 in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 45; Jasprit Bumrah 2/29, Karn Sharma 2/39)

Mumbai Indians: 157/8 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 58; Ben Stokes 2/21, Jaydev Unadkat 2/40)

Check out – Full scorecard here

Check out- Full points table here