IPL 10, Match 55, Who Said What - Rising Pune Supergiant v Mumbai Indians

In an enormous game, the Rising Pune Supergiant hosted the Kings XI Punjab for their final league game and the stakes were high! The team that won the game would make a place for themselves in the playoffs and though Pune had a two-point advantage over Punjab their Net Run Rate was the matter of concern. But that didn’t come into the equation – it proved to be a one-sided affair as KXIP flattered in the all-important game.

Steve Smith won the toss and invited Punjab to bat first. Jaydev Unadkat had a wicket on the very first ball, the big man Martin Guptill hit it Manoj Tiwary at short extra-cover. His bowling partner Shardul Thakur then chipped in with three wickets, Daniel Christian and Adam Zampa shared a couple each while their leading wicket taker Unadkat added another wicket to his name.

The Kings had a disastrous day with the bat and were folded up for just 74 runs. This score was never going to challenge Rising Puner Supergiant who have a very balanced batting line-up led by Rahul Tripathi at the top to MS Dhoni as the finisher and they didn’t need anyone apart from the openers and skipper Smith to cruise their way over 74.

Ajinkya Rahane got time to get in and used it to his advantage; he remained unbeaten on 34 from 34 balls while Tiwary scored 28 from 20 balls to get back going after a bit of a batting slag in the middle phases of the league. With this win the Supergiant ended the league stages with 18 points and are among the top two teams to qualify for the playoffs.

Maxwell points out the positives

Glenn Maxwell was disappointed to have ended the game on the losing side but was pleased that the team didn’t finish last like they did in the previous edition of the tournament. Kings had won four out of their last five matches to get to this position with most of their players responding to the team’s call.

Maxwell said: The toss had something to do with the result. The wicket was a bit damp, we didn’t adjust properly – but those sort of things happens in t20 cricket. We didn’t assess the conditions, lost a wicket first ball and never recovered. Those things happens, happened to DD against us, now it happened to us.

It’s a lot easier to chase down scores in this tournament and me losing so many tosses didn’t help. We can take a lot of positives from the tournament, we played to our plans and fought hard, Axar had a great tournament. Thankful to our supporters for the way they backed us.

Smith is mighty pleased

It was the easiest win for the team in a high-pressure game and Smith was mighty pleased to meet Mumbai in the qualifier at the Wankhede Stadium, the team they have defeated twice in the league stages already.

Steven Smith said: It was a nice day. Everything went according to plan. The bowlers did a decent job. Does not happen everyday that you reduce a team to 73. It was an easy decision to bowl today, the wicket was a bit sticky. The bowlers did a terrific job. Shardul was just fanstastic and then Unadkat.

Obviously, it was our second year in the tournament. We wanted to get the balance right. We had some new guys coming. We have got a couple of options that we can talk about. It is going to be a big loss. Stokes has been a big name. But hopefully, guys can step up.

Unadkat is ready for the Mumbai challenge

He wasn’t considered good enough to be a part of the team in the early part of the league but once he was given a long rope Unadkat proved his worth with the ball and has picked 21 wickets in 10 matches and is now challenging Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the purple cap who has 25 wickets in 13 matches.

The left-arm pacer was awarded the Man of the Match award for his figures of 3-1-2-12; his second in the tournament thus far.

Jaydev Unadkat said: It has been brilliant. We have been really good as a unit. The execution has been brilliant, does not happen often in a T20 game. If you see that has been there in the last 10-12 games, after we lost the first couple of games. We have been brilliant, and that has helped me. The seniors have been terrific, they have helped us a lot.

Not just me, Shardul too bowled well today. You don’t underestimate the power of a modern-day fast bowler . We have worked on our fitness and that has been helping during matches. Ben was an integral part, he is leaving tonight. That will be a big loss. But having said that we have won a game without him. The plan is to keep things simple. It will be brilliant to beat Mumbai in Mumbai.