Twitter reactions: Fifties from Smith and Rahane compel RPS to a 7-wicket win

From David Warner to Michael Clarke, here is how cricketing world reacted to RPS victory.

By Salman Khan

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Steve Smith and MS Dhoni
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Steve Smith celebrates the victory with MS Dhoni. (Photo Source: BCCI)

Rising Pune Supergiant skipper Steve Smith enjoyed a successful debut as RPS captain as he led his side’s chase of 185 with an unbeaten 84 off just 54 balls. RPS eventually beat Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets with just one ball to spare.

The MCA Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for Smith as he recently scored a memorable Test century there against the Indians which culminated into a rare Test win for Australia. Smith doesn’t boost of a great T20 record and didn’t participate in any T20 game since last year’s IPL yet he delivered the goods for his side that too under extreme pressure. The equation was fairly simple at the end of the 18th over as RPS required 20 runs from the final 2 overs. A great penultimate over by Jasprit

The equation was fairly simple at the end of the 18th over as RPS required 20 runs from the final 2 overs. A great penultimate over by Jasprit Bumrah ensured that Pollard had 13 runs to defend off the final over. Three good balls from the big man got the equation to 10 off 3 and it started looking tricky for RPS. This is when Smith dismissed Pollard for consecutive sixes over mid-wicket to seal the 7-wicket victory.

The fielding standards in the first two games have been very ordinary. Smith was given a reprieve by Nitish Rana as he dropped a relatively regulation catch when the skipper was on 28. That fielding lapse eventually proved fatal.

The Pune innings was given the perfect start by Ajinkya Rahane. The Indian vice-captain got into the groove at the start of the innings and scored his runs quickly to put the Mumbai Indians bowlers under pressure. He completed his half-century off just 27 balls and was eventually dismissed for 60 – to an excellent catch in the deep – off the bowling of Southee.  This is when Smith took charge of the Pune innings.

Put into bat first by Smith, Mumbai Indians were off to the perfect start as their openers Parthiv Patel and Butler hit a flurry of boundaries. Smith then got his senior leg-spinner, Imran Tahir, to bowl the 5th over and he immediately responded by uprooting the leg stump of Parthiv Patel. Rohit Sharma, who surprisingly didn’t open the innings, came in to bat at No. 3 and looked to knock the ball around to settle into the innings. Tahir again tormented the Mumbai Indians when he picked the wickets of Rohit and Butler in the same over to peg Mumbai back. Nitesh Rana stabilized the innings with an enterprising knock of 34 before he was snapped by the other leg-spinner: Adam Zampa.

Mumbai Indians’ innings was going downhill until Hardik Pandya revived it by some lusty hits in the end. He got stuck into Ashoke Dinda and took 30 runs off the last over of the innings which included 4 brutal strikes over the fence. Mumbai added as many as 49 runs in the final two overs of the innings and got the much-needed momentum going into the innings.

We bring you to the best tweets which went up on the social networking website Twitter during the game:

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IPL 2024Rising Pune SupergiantMumbai IndiansAdam ZampaSteven SmithAjinkya RahaneImran TahirRohit Sharma