Risings Pune Supergiants finally ended Mumbai Indian’s six-match unbeaten streak at Wankhede and also won the second Maharastra derby this season after winning first in Pune.
Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first. Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi opened for Pune and scored an impressive 76 runs in 9.3 overs, before Rahane was caught & bowled by Karn Sharma. Later, Tripathi was dismissed in the 11th over. The visitors struggled to get the finishing kick as their big guns like Stokes and MS Dhoni could not capitalize on the death overs, which were bowled by Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Mcclenaghan and Jasprit Bumrah.
Harbhajan took his 200th T20 wicket by dismissing Steve Smith in the 13th over. By the end of the innings the visitors managed to score 160/6.
Rohit, who had scored just 4 runs from 4 games got over his dull form and scored 22 runs off Imran Tahir's 14 balls to guide Mumbai’s chase, which was shaky as batsmen like Jos Buttler, Parthiv Patel, Nitish Rana and Kieron Pollard perished to profligate strokes to keep RPS in the hunt.
Ben Stokes’ brilliance subdued a solo effort from Rohit Sharma, who scored 58 off 39 balls and looked like he would win the match for Mumbai despite needing 17 off the last six balls from Jaydev Unadkat.
Stokes mixed his length and pace to concede just seven when Mumbai needed 24 off 12 with good strikers like Pandya and Rohit at the crease.
Sharma hit the second ball of the last over for six requiring 11 off four balls. Umpire S Ravi failed to spot a wide that incensed Sharma, who protested vigorously. The decision only made the match tough for the home side as they now needed 11 off three balls. It also affected Rohit’s concentration as he skied the next ball to be caught and bowled that effectively ended the contest.
AMandeep
