IPL 10, Match 39, Rising Pune Supergiant v Gujarat Lions – 5 Game Changing Moments

What an innings it turned out to be from Ben Stokes as the southpaw smashed his maiden IPL hundred and treated the home crowd with some electrifying strokeplay. He never looked in any discomfort and it was an exhibition of power hitting. MS Dhoni also gave him good support with a run a ball 25.

Earlier in the day, Brendon McCullum scored a fluent 45 while his opening partner Ishan Kishan also got off to a brisk start. After their partnership ended, GL failed to press on the accelerator and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. They were eventually bowled out for 161 in the final over. Imran Tahir and Unadkat was the pick of the Pune bowlers. Now that said here we have a look at the 5 game-changing moments from the 39^th encounter

Brendon McCullum gets GL off to a flying start

McCullum began with a boundary of Jaydev Unadkat in the 2^nd delivery of the innings and looked in good touch from the outset. The final delivery of the over was also spanked through the cover region for another boundary. The swashbuckling batsman then smashed Ben Stokes for a four and a six in the 5^th over.

He continued for some more time and looked to complete a fifty but a lapse in concentration hurt him and his team badly as he was dismissed at his personal score of 45 of 27 deliveries.

Imran Tahir’s exceptional spell

Now this man is something. He has been regularly taking wickets in the tournament so far and his infamous lap of honour following his wicket has become a testimony of his bowling. Yet again today he bamboozled the GL batsmen with his well-directed googlies and leg breaks.

He began with the wicket of Ishan Kishan and then foxed Aaron finch and Dwayne Smith in consecutive deliveries. Finch failed to read the drift on the ball and gave away a simple return catch back to Tahir. Smith was bamboozled with a beautiful googly. As the right went for a slog sweep the ball breached his defence and disturbed the timbers. He eventually finished with impressive figures of 3/27 in his 4 overs.

Jaydev Unadkat chips in with a crucial spell

Left-arm seamer Unadkat played a perfect foil to Imran Tahir and was instrumental in stemming the un flow during the death overs. He finished with figures of 3/29 in his 4 overs and was instrumental in restricting them to 161. He wiped out the tail and bagged crucial wickets in the end.

He bagged the wickets of Pradeep Sangwan, James Faulkner and Ankit Soni. He executed his slower balls to perfection and courtesy this win RPS strengthen their position in the points table.

Top order collapse for Pune

Chasing a competitive target, Pune began in the worst possible manner losing two wickets in the very first over of Pradeep Sangwan. It was a sensational start to IPL 10 season as the replacement worked wonders for GL. Rahane smashed a boundary before getting trapped in front with a swinging delivery.

Smith who has looked in ominous touch off late was bounced out by Sangwan as the Aussie captain was hurried by the pace and steep bounce. He only managed to top edge and Ankit Soni snaffled it in the short fine leg region. Now it was the turn of Basil Thampi to get off the mark in the wickets as he trapped Manoj Tiwary plumb in front to send him back for a two-ball duck.

Ben Stokes lits up the stadium with his mind-boggling century

Now this man lived up to his 14.5 crores price tag and smashed match-winning hundred for his franchise. It was just clean hitting by the southpaw as the GL bowlers were kept on depositing to nooks and corners of the ground. It was his counterattacking start which brought RPS back into the reckoning and from there on the southpaw didn’t look back.

He got able support from MS Dhoni while he kept swinging and connecting. He was literally toying with the bowlers and made strokeplay look ridiculously easy until the very end. He finished the game in the in the penultimate delivery as Pune chased the target down with a delivery to spare.