IPL 10, Match 4, KXIP v RPS: Rising Pune Supergiant Predicted XI

Steve Smith

Steve Smith, was successful on his first encounter as captain of the Rising Pune Super Giant as he himself played a superb knock to guide his team to victory. The 27-year-old Aussie skipper carried his good form in the Indian Premier League too as he remained unbeaten at the score of 84.

The player improved his average in the IPL with his match winning knock in the last match and is well in the hunt for the orange cap. It looks like the Rising Pune Super Giant’s success this season will depend a lot on this man who is determined to lead his team to victory.

Smith did pretty well as a captain too as he rotated his bowlers well to restrict the Mumbai Indians to a score of 184.

Faf du Plessis

Faf Du Plessis might be considered for the second match against the Kings XI Punjab to add strength to the batting line up of the Rising Pune Super Giants. In the first two matches of the Indian Premier League, the scores have been on the higher side which might provoke the selectors to opt for du Plessis.

With 8 half-centuries and an average of 30.64 in the IPL Du Plessis can be a very dependable batsman in the middle order if he comes in the playing XI. He is likely to replace Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa who did not have a very good first match.

But Du Plessis’s inclusion depends a lot upon how the Indore pitch turns out to be as they might also opt for the extra spinner if it is a bowling pitch.

Manoj Tiwary

The Bengal player can be a handy batsman in the middle order and that is exactly the reason why he was picked in the squad for the first game against the Mumbai Indians.

Manoj did not have a lot to do in the first game as Steve Smith single-handedly saw off the opponents and Tiwary did not get a chance bat. But things could be quite different in the next match and the team would expect the batsman to show his calibre when he gets his opportunity.

Tiwary has so far played 79 matches in the Indian Premier League in which he has only managed 1324 runs. He has also reached the 50 run mark 5 times which is quite low, to be honest. But the batsman could prove to be an important one in tough situations as he has the potential to excel in this format.

Ben Stokes

The 14.5 crore buy off the Rising Pune Super Giant franchise had a busy first experience of the Indian Premier League as he had the opportunity to both bat and bowl in the first match.

The all-rounder was expensive in his first over but came back pretty well in his second. He went for 36 runs in total and picked up one wicket. But the negative point in his bowling was that he went for 4 sixes in his four overs which were the highest along with Ashoke Dinda as far as the RPS bowling is concerned.

He also had a part to play with the bat as he scored 21 runs of 14 deliveries hitting 3 fours. His strike rate during the short cameo was 150 and will surely feature against the Kings XI Punjab.

MS Dhoni

The former Indian captain was at the non-striker’s end when Steve Smith scored the winning runs for the Rising Pune Super Giant with a six. Dhoni did not have much to do with his bat but did well to not to give his wicket away at a crucial point of the game.

But the 35-year-old was responsible enough behind the stumps and would definitely like to play a big part in the next match against the Kings XI Punjab. Considering the fact that the Kings XI have some big scorers with the bat in their lineup we can expect that the Rising Pune Supergiant might have to chase down a big total. On such circumstances, the World Cup winning captain will have to prove his worth which he has been doing throughout his glorious career.

Being one of the best finishers of the game there is no doubt over the fact that Dhoni would be playing all the games for the Rising Pune Super Giant franchise.