'Stroke' of bad luck for RPS all-rounder Ben Stokes

Ben Stokes is the most expensive player in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL), after Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchisee Rising Pune Supergiant bought him for Rs. 14.5 crores. Many doubted his abilities, and whether he was worth of the money he was receiving or not. But the tall English all-rounder gave the critics a tough time, due to his all-round performance in the tenth edition of IPL.

He is the Most Valuable Player (till date) in this year’s IPL. When you have a player like Stokes who is superb with the bat, brilliant with the ball and exceptional in the field, you are confident that he will contribute one way or the other. Hence, Stokes seldom had a bad day in IPL, as he performed either with the ball or with the bat in hand. In 11 matches, he has scored 318 runs, which includes a scintillating 103 n.o. Also good with the ball, he has picked up 12 wickets alongside maintaining an economy rate of under 8 runs per over.

There is no ‘r’ in Stokes

Owing to his performances, the Pune franchise is still in the hunt for the play-offs spot. He is ready to give his level best against Kings XI Punjab in the must-win encounter on Sunday. But are the officials at Jet Airways supporters of the Preity Zinta-owned team? He was travelling from Delhi to Pune for their last home game, and Jet Airways made a typographical error. Instead of Ben Stokes, they wrote his name as Ben ‘Strokes’.

Stokes preferred to be on the safer side and wanted to change the spelling, but there was not enough time for that. Instead, he was allowed to board the flight without any mishap. On the social media site Instagram, he shared the picture of the flight ticket, where was named as Ben ‘Strokes’, with the caption “Typo”.

On Sunday, Stokes will play his last match in this year’s IPL. He then will fly back to England to join his team who are preparing for the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The match against Kings XI Punjab is must win for Pune and vice-versa. If Rising Pune Supergiant wins today, they will miss Stokes in the playoffs. If they don’t, everyone will have to fly back home alongside Stokes. Every supporter of Pune will now want to some glamorous ‘strokes’ for the last time, from Stokes.