Ahead of the game number 55 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 10, it was a do or die situation for both Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). Both had to fight for the last time in this season to book a berth in the playoffs. The losing side has to bid adieu to this tournament and after the game ended, KXIP was the team to do so. After some terrific bowling spells by Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Dan Christian and Adam Zampa, RPS not only restricted Punjab to their lowest team total ever but defeated them ‘Massively’ by 9 wickets and successfully entered the qualifiers. RPS have surpassed the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), they clinched the 2nd position as well with 18 points.
Earlier today, RPS skipper Steven Smith won the toss and invited KXIP to bat first. Punjab, after defeating KKR and Mumbai Indians (MI), were again looking to set a pretty competitive target but Jaydev Undakat, who came into the attack, had something different in his mind. He dismissed Martin Guptill in the very first ball. And after that, the entire batting line up collapsed within 73 runs and set their lowest team total in all the IPL seasons.
The target was just 74 runs and RPS were almost into the playoffs as it was not a hard nut to crack. As usual, Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi came to open the innings and they played perfectly and added 41 runs for the first wicket before Rahul Tripathi was dismissed by Axar Patel for 28 runs off 20 balls. Then came skipper Steven Smith who came in at number three and accompanied Rahane in the run chase.
Without losing any more wickets, the duo of Rahane and Smith took their team to playoffs and defeated KXIP by 9 wickets.
RPS exhibited a superb show with the ball where Shardul Thakur turned out to be the highest wicket taker (4-19-3) while Jaydev Unadkat, Adam Zampa and Daniel Christian took 2 wickets each. Meanwhile, MS Dhoni stunned the entire crowd by taking three important catches while keeping wickets.
For interesting sports videos from InUth, follow us on Youtube.com/InUthdotcom
