IPL 10, 1st Qualifier, MI v RPS – Rising Pune Supergiant Player Ratings

MS Dhoni has had terrific success whenever he has played against Mumbai Indians. On Tuesday night, Rising Pune Supergiant became the first team to beat Mumbai Indians thrice in a single edition of the IPL with the other team being Chennai Super Kings who did it in 2014. Dhoni was the common factor on both occasions.

RPS defeated Mumbai Indians by 20 runs at the Wankhede Stadium to get one hand on the trophy. They played really well on the night and defied the odds to beat Mumbai in their own backyard for the second straight time. MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Washington Sundar and Manoj Tiwary were the chief architects of the win as RPS stormed into their first ever finals in just their second season in the mega-tournament.

The decisive moment in the game was Sundar’s double strikes in the 6th over in which he sent Rohit and Pollard back to the hut. From there on, Mumbai struggled to keep up with the required run rate and eventually succumbed to the pressure, handing a 20-run win to RPS.

Parthiv’s 52 kept them in the hunt briefly but a target of 163 on a slow Wankhede pitch needed someone else to support the wicket-keeper batsman. We bring you to the player ratings of the victorious Rising Pune Supergiant side:

Ajinkya Rahane – 8/10

Rahane had a quiet tournament and was due to get runs during the playoffs. His only half-century this year came against the same opposition in both sides first game of the season. After the early jitters, Rahane found his rhythm to hit a neat 56 which came off 43 balls. He hit 5 fours and a six in his pristine knock which made sure that RPS do not get bogged down after losing Tripathi and Smith early.

Rahul Tripathi – 1/10

A lot was expected of Tripathi in this game due to his fine run of form earlier in the tournament. Tripathi had overshadowed international stars: Rahane and Smith in the latter half of the tournament but could not get going when it mattered the most. He was cleaned up by Mitchell McClenaghan with a ball that came back a little as Tripathi played across the line.

Steve Smith – 4/10

After Tripathi’s departure, a lot depended on Smith’s shoulders. The Australian hadn’t scored many runs in the lead up to this qualifier and paid the price of playing a big shot too early in his innings. His dismissal left his side tottering at 9/2 in the second over. He marshalled his troops well during the chase to strangle favourites Mumbai Indians at their own home ground. Smith’s two low catches at short mid-wicket off Sundar highlighted his prowess as a fielder.

Manoj Tiwary – 9/10

After Dhoni’s blitz, Tiwary’s innings has been largely gone unnoticed. Coming in to bat at 9/2, Tiwary ensured that he steadied the ship. He sewed up a critical 80-run stand with Rahane for the third wicket to get Pune’s innings back on track. The 31-year old then cut loose during the end overs to give the much-needed impetus to RPS’s innings which later rubbed off on Dhoni. The Bengal batsman’s 48-ball 58 deserves every bit of attention.

MS Dhoni – 9/10

When Dhoni mustered to 14 runs, which came off 18 balls, everyone was wondering what had gone wrong with one of the best strikers of the ball ever seen. He was swinging hard, only to miss-time it or completely miss the ball. He was eyeing the midwicket boundary every time and even succeeded as he hit his first two sixes in that very region.

Dhoni, after missing a couple of balls, decided to hit it straighter. What followed next left everyone amazed. As many as 26 runs came off Dhoni’s willow in the last 8 balls he faced. He struck 5 ferocious hits across the fence to swing the pendulum in his side’s favour. His 40* off 26 balls was the game-changing innings.

Daniel Christian – 6.5/10

Christian did not get to bat today but did a reasonable job with his military medium pace during the middle overs. He finished the game with figures of 0/33 in 4 overs and took three smart catches on the straight boundary. He is a multi-utility cricketer who adds a lot of value to this RPS side.

Washington Sundar – 9.5/10

Man of the Match for his career best 3/16, Sundar never looked like that he was playing his first season in the IPL. Neither did he look like a 17-year old who has played just a handful of domestic games. His tight bowling on the night was the decisive factor in RPS reaching the IPL finals. His scalps included big wickets of Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard apart from Ambati Rayudu.

Lockie Ferguson – 7/10

Selected to play only his third game this year; Ferguson never looked like being rusty. He replaced Ben Stokes in the XI and delivered a bowling performance which would do Stokes proud. His three overs were scattered across three different spells and the Kiwi bowler took the significant wicket of Hardik Pandya just when he started looking dangerous. His return of 1/21 was just what Smith wanted from this young fast bowler from New Zealand.

Adam Zampa – 3/10

Due to the presence of left-handers in the centre, Zampa’s game was curtailed to just one over. Smith missed a trick of not using him earlier as Mumbai had three left-handers in the lower middle order. Zampa bowled the one over decently. He got hit for a six-second ball but was good enough to concede just 2 runs from the last 4 balls of that over.

Shardul Thakur – 7/10

Thakur has been very impressive this season and he continued his good form by ending the match with 3/37. He was tonked for 23 runs in his first two overs but did exceedingly well to get 3/14 in his last two to make sure there was no fight back in the middle overs by Mumbai Indians. He inflicted the run-out of Simmons too to give RPS a much-needed breakthrough.

Jaydev Unadkat – 7/10

Unadkat has been very consistent this year. He delivered a good first over in which he gave away just the one run. His second over went for 10 runs but he did a good job to close the game for his side. Asked to bowl the 17th over by Smith, Unadkat delivered a perfect over as he gave just four runs and picked the wicket of Karn Sharma. He then took a smart catch off Thakur’s bowling to mark a good day at the office where he returned with 1/24.