Kolkata: Rising Pune Supergiant have surely made a statement or two after they edged past Mumbai Indians in an IPL 10 match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai by just three runs.
Batting first, the Pune openers- Rahul Tripathi (45) and Ajinkya Rahane (38) put on a stable 76 run stand before a middle order collapse. The debacle saw them at a wobbly 126/4 at one stage. But the innings was finished off well by Manoj Tiwary who struck four fours to score 22 runs from just 13 balls. The Pune innings thus ended at 160/6.
Looked comfortable, but…
The target looked like a comfortable one for Mumbai who have been on a rampage of late in the IPL, especially at home. Thirty-five runs added by the openers in just 4.2 overs made it clear that Mumbai wouldn’t walk away with a loss. But the quick wickets of Parthiv Patel (33), Jos Buttler (17) and Nitish Rana (3) put Mumbai on the backfoot.
However skipper Rohit Sharma fought back hard with a solid 58 runs but after he was dismissed brilliantly by left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat, it was all over for the home team. They eventually fell agonisingly three runs short of the Pune target.
Ben Stokes was the best bowler for the visitors with two wickets to his name from the four overs he bowled in which he gave away just 21 runs. Unadkat chipped in with two wickets too.
Despite the loss, Mumbai Indians remain at the top of the table while Pune are now on the fourth position with this big win.
Brief scores:
Rising Pune Supergiant 160/6 (Rahul Tripathi 45, Ajinkya Rahane 38; Jasprit Bumrah 2/29) beat Mumbai Indians 157/8 (Rohit Sharma 58, Parthiv Patel 33; Ben Stokes 2/21) by 3 runs.