IPL 10: Match 39, Who Said What: Rising Pune Supergiant v Gujarat Lions

The 39th match of the IPL between Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions at Pune, belonged to Ben Stokes as he single-handedly took his side to an improbable victory with a magnificent ton out of nowhere as they successfully chased down 162. Earlier tonight, Steve Smith won the toss and elected to field first. Gujarat Lions scrambled their way towards a total of 161.

Imran Tahir and Jaydev Unadkat picked up three wickets each to keep a lid on the batting heavy line-up of the visitors. The only highlight for the Lions came at the top of the innings with their openers Brendon McCullum and Ishan Kishan as they scored 45 and 31 respectively.

It was all bleak for the Supergiant as they lost Ajinkya Rahane, captain Smith, dependable Manoj Tiwary, and consistent Rahul Tripathi within the powerplays. MS Dhoni and Ben Stokes stabilised the innings with their partnership. Stokes finished off the chase for the home team with 73 required off the last six overs.

The multi-million dollar man showed one and all why he was the most sought after player this season of the IPL auction as he ended up with 103 off just 63 deliveries at a strike rate of 163.5, scoring 6 mammoth sixes and seven powerful boundaries.

It was yet another enthralling match as it went down to the wire. The home side defeated the visitors by 5 wickets and a ball remaining which is their first win over Gujarat in their four meetings. No prizes for guessing yet again, Ben Stokes was awarded as the man of the match for the onslaught with the bat.

Ben Stokes

The man of the match calmed the nerves of his Pune fans by revealing that the injury was just a cramp and nothing serious. Stokes said that it’s a boon to be a part of both sides of the team being an allrounder. Even after scoring a brilliant century, he humbly stated that he was excited about the fact that the team is on a winning streak, which is of utmost importance for him. He concluded by expressing that if the team continued their good form, finals won’t look distant.

It’s cramps in the calves. I get that a lot. Legs are not the best at the moment but I will be okay. It’s great to be a part of both sides of the game; that’s the best thing about being an all-rounder. We lost a few early wickets, and the start didn’t help. I and MS tried to tick along and get something going, And try and capitalize later, first cooling off and taking it over by over. It’s always nice, personal accolades and stuff like that, but we are on a roll as a team. If we keep performing like this, we can see ourselves in the final. I think the rest did me some good. I felt my training was slipping away, and I may have been doing some training that wasn’t benefitting me. It was quite a good thing to go to the nets and hit the ball properly.

Steve Smith

Captain was thankful for the partnership between MS Dhoni and Stokes who were responsible for taking their team out of danger and laid the platform for a victory. However, according to Smith, the turning point in the first innings was when the ball started reversing for the bowlers after hitting a part of the hoarding which scruffed up the ball. He concluded by saying that the multi-million dollar man justified every single penny spent on him.

It wasn’t an ideal start. We have some artillery in the shed. The partnership between MS and Stokes was maginificent; they took it deep. We know we can hit sixes here; one of the easier grounds in India to hit sixes. Great effort from the bowlers to pull it back. One of the balls hit the side of the hoarding, taking a chunk out of it, and the ball started reversing. That made things easier. The tournament is about peaking at the right time. Hopefully, it’s not too early. Five or six games in a row here. Hopefully we can keep that up. It was unlucky to miss out after getting MoM and bowling so well in the last game (talking about Stokes). Stokesy is a quality guy, that’s why we picked him up. 100 odd off 60 rocks.

Suresh Raina

Raina believed that his team competed very well until the last over. He confirmed that there was enough dew on the field to cause trouble for the bowlers. He applauded the effort of Stokes by stating that he was aware of his team’s weakness in the spin department.

The skipper accepted the fact that they were just another wicket away from victory. As he always has been this tournament, Suresh Raina remained optimistic for the last four matches and stated that still there is a long way to go in the tournament and there is no way anyone can write them off yet.

We played really well. Last over we did not bowl well. Probably the dew was there. Credit goes to Stokes, he batted really well. He took his chances and played really well. He knew that we did not have power in the spin department. We were 25-30 runs short, still we played well. We kept losing wickets and did not have wickets in the end. We were all-out in 19.3 overs (20 overs). Sangwan and Basil set up the game for us up front. He (Stokes) was hitting well. He was hitting clean and all those big sixes. We were only one wicket away there. We have got 4 games to go. We are putting our effort in the bowling and fielding department after 6-7 games. Still we need to take responsibility in the batting department too. Hopefully things will turn our way.

Rising Pune Supergiant, with this win against the Lions, have distanced themselves from the bottom half of the IPL table. RPS currently have 12 points in 10 games and are sitting pretty at the fourth position. Kings XI Punjab and Gujarat Lions have a lot of catching up to do if they wish for even the fourth position.