IPL 10: Match 28, Who Said What: Mumbai Indians v Rising Pune Supergiant

After the heroics from the last game against the Sunrisers, a buoyant Rising Pune Supergiant squad met the table toppers Mumbai Indians at Wankhede for round two of the Maharashtra Derby. The home team looked for their revenge against the Pune side for the only defeat they faced in the tournament against them. Mumbai Indians won the toss and there was no surprise as they opted to field first, sticking to their winning formula.

RPS went off to a perfect start as Rahane and Tripathy stitched the only substantial partnership in the innings by adding 76 runs in almost 10 overs. Rahane top-scored with his 45 and was ably supported by Pune’s find of the tournament Rahul Tripathy, who scored 38. Wickets continued to tumble in the middle and like always, Manoj Tiwary delivered the final impetus required to push RPS’ total to a competitive 160. Tiwary scored a 13-ball 22 in the process.

Harbhajan Singh, as usual, was his miserly self as he gave away just 20 runs and took a wicket. Bumrah and Karn Sharma picked up a couple of wickets each to push the visitors into the backfoot. Chasing totals wasn’t easy for the Mumbai Indians as it had been in the first few matches in the tournament. Buttler and Rana tried to emulate their heroics at Indore but failed in the process. Only Parthiv Patel and Rohit Sharma held their ground with wickets falling regularly at the other end. Patel scored a vital 33 laced with four boundaries.

Rohit Sharma played the innings of the match as he came back to form with his 58 runs at a strike rate of 149. He single-handedly threatened to chase down Pune’s score. He hit 3 sixes and 6 boundaries in his innings. In the end, Mumbai Indians fell short by just 3 runs, thanks to a couple of brilliant overs at the death by Stokes and Unadkat. They broke the back of Mumbai Indians batting order as they picked four wickets amongst themselves. Rising Pune Supergiant, thereby, break the winning streak of Mumbai Indians. Mumbai lost both rounds of the Maharashtra Derby with this 3 run defeat. Ben Stokes was adjudged as the man of the match for his bowling efforts.

Ben Stokes

Stokes seemed elated after stating that the team is peaking at the right moment even though he was disappointed that he missed out with the bat. Stokes further mentioned that he is absolutely loving the thrills and grills of the IPL.

The bowling side has at least been coming out well. Pretty disappointed with the bat. We are peaking at just the right time after not starting all that well but are putting in some good performances now. It is an advantage being an all-rounder, you get to contribute in every department. You always have a chance to come back. The pitches have been conducive to slower bowling and it has been coming out well. Absolutely loving it here, it is mega to be a part of and am pretty fortunate to be in this situation. Was told the same by quite a few other England guys who’ve come down here.

Steve Smith

The Pune skipper seemed contended after being on the winning side yet again and praised the efforts of Ben Stokes. He also commended the efforts of Jaydev Unadkat who bowled the decisive last over,

Absolutely happy. We scrapped really well at the end. Few guys under pressure did really well, Stokesy in the second last over was magnificent. Jaydev was amazing too with his final two overs to keep them down. We love the close ones, never win by a big margin and would like to change that. The dew wasn’t really bad, we expected it to be a lot worse. The wicket did stay good for the whole of 40 overs. It wasn’t a typical Wankhede wicket, took a bit of turn, stopped a bit and 160 was pretty much par. We know the arsenal Mumbai have with their batting. Jaydev was fantastic at the end, he bowled wide with slower balls and hit hard lengths. If a batsman still hits you for a six you just take your hat off. He did really well to stick to his plans after Rohit hit him and came back well.

Rohit Sharma

A disappointed Mumbai skipper remarked that the team lost even though they tried their level best and got so close to the target. Sharma cited the loss of important during the middle hit Mumbai hard. The stylish batsman wanted to point out reasons for the loss without being critical. He concluded by saying that he wasn’t satisfied with his performance as he couldn’t finish the game for his side.

It is disappointing after being so close. We tried our best, gave everything we could. Disappointing not able to finish. We need not be too critical about the performance. It was a great effort to reduce them under 170. In the middle overs, we lost few wickets and that was a little mistake. Overall a great game. The pitch was little dry and was assisting spinners. Both the spinners did a good job. It’s very important to understand the pace at which you need to bowl at the Wankhede. It’s harder with dew coming in and both our spinners bowled really well. As I said, we don’t have to be critical of our performance. We’ve been playing good cricket. We need to continue doing that. We don’t want to lose any games. We have to leave this game right here and move on. We got to focus on the matches coming up and get our act together. Was good to score runs, but disappointing not to finish the game. Jaydev bowled a great last over. It takes a lot of courage to bowl and he got a wicket off the first ball which is very crucial. Needing 17, you can’t lose a wicket off the first ball (in the final over).

Rising Pune Supergiant gallop onto the fourth position in the points table with 8 points in their kitty.