Twitter Reactions: MS Dhoni powers RPS into the final of IPL 2017

They were the only team to have defeated the Mumbai Indians twice in this edition of the Indian Premier League and had sealed a Qualifier clash with them in their den. Rising Pune Supergiant have now travelled to Mumbai twice and beaten the home team twice to become the first team to qualify for the final of the IPL 2017.

Rohit Sharma was happy when he won the toss and decided to bowl first. Chasing was always their preferred option and he had the luxury to ask the opposition to bat. Both the captains expected it to be a flat deck with the aggregate score of 450 plus in the previous game. But the central strip of the Wankhede Stadium played slow, the ball didn’t come onto the bat with pace and shot making looked difficult.

RPS lost Rahul Tripathi for a duck, skipper Steve Smith could add just 1. It was then that Ajinkya Rahane who regained his form in the previous game and Manoj Tiwary who has been consistent for the team right through batting as a floater in the middle order got together. The duo added 80 runs before Rahane was dismissed for 56.

That was then that MS Dhoni walked out to the middle. The Mumbai crowd was suddenly chanting Dhoni..Dhoni and we know where their loyalties lied. He took his time to get going while Tiwary at the other end scored most of the runs. But once the ball hit the middle of the bat he was a hungry Lion. It was a rare knock where he didn’t score a single boundary but plundered as many as five sixes.

Tiwary scored 58 from 48 and was run out on the last ball while Dhoni stayed unbeaten on 40 from 26. The former skipper’s knock changed the momentum of the game as RPS scored 41 runs in the last two overs.

The chase was off to a poor start for Mumbai Indians as Lendl Simmons was run out at the non-striker’s end of Shardul Thakur. Washington Sundar then got in and made the game his own. He first picked Rohit Sharma for 1, Ambati Rayudu for a duck and then Kieron Pollard in the span of 10 runs.

All the big hitters in the team the Pandyas and Karn Sharma were out cheap and the game was just slipping by with the fall of each wicket. All this while Parthiv Patel was scoring runs at the other end, he scored a 40-ball 52 but there was a bit too much to be done by that time. The pitch was slow and there were hardly any big hits reaching the boundary the pressure of the asking rate and that imposed by the bowlers drowned MI as they could just manage 142/9 in 20 overs.

Here is how Twitterati reacted during the course of the game: