The Rising Pune Supergiant pulled off a thrilling win at the Wankhede, defeating the Mumbai Indians by 3 runs. In what turned out to be a crunch final over, the Pune boys held their nerves and a combined team effort helped them get back in the sceme of things this IPL 2017.
Despite a strong start by Rahul Tripathi(45 off 31) and Ajinkya Rahane(38 off 32), the Pune franchise failed to get to a comfort score. The middle wasn’t able to convert their starts and this left too much to do in the death overs. With Mumbai’s strong pace attack, it was always going to be difficult for Pune to get going in the last 4 overs. However, Manoj Tiwary played a crucial knock towards the end with a quick fire 22 off 14 balls. The Supergiant finished with 160 on the board, a target which was probably 20 runs shy off an ideal score.
Mumbai started decently with the Parthiv-Buttler duo getting 35 in the first 4 overs. Parthiv went on to get 33(27) while Nitish Rana had a rare, off night. The MI captain finally came to the party with his flair and brilliance in a 39 ball 58. Ben Stokes delivered a stunning bowling performance - a spell that read 4-1-21-2. He was given the ball in the penultimate over which he justified by giving away just 7 runs against the likes of Rohit and Hardik Pandya.
With 17 required off the last over and Jaydev Unadkat with ball in hand, the pressure was on the Mumbai Indians. Stokes ran in from the boundary to take a catch and dismiss Hardik on the first ball. Rohit followed it up with a 6 only to be dismissed with 11 required off the last 2. Mumbai couldn’t carry themselves over the line with a little too much left for the end.
The Rising Pune Supergiant finally ended Mumbai’s 6 match winning streak. Interestingly, Mumbai Indians’ only other loss this season was against RPS in their first game. Mumbai will play their next fixture against the Gujarat Lions on 29th April at Rajkot.