On the 20th day of IPL 2017, the Mumbai Indians took on the other Maharashtra team, Rising Pune Supergiants. It was a closely fought match which turned up an unexpected result. We take a look at the highlights of match 28 at the Indian Premier League and a few other things that made the day special.
The Mumbai team started out with significant advantages. It was their home ground and they won the toss as well; putting the Pune team in to bat. Ajinkya Rahane (38 off 32) and Rahul Tripathi (45 off 31) got their team off to a good start. Skipper Steven Smith was dismissed by Harbhajan Singh for just 17 and M S Dhoni also went cheaply (7off11), falling to Bumrah. RPS was restricted to 160 for 6 wickets.
For a team in such good form, 161 seemed a very gettable target for the Mumbai Indians. The openers started well too; with Parthiv Patel playing a characteristic 33 run knock and Jos Buttler chipping in with 17 off 13. It was skipper Rohit Sharma who finally found form to rack up 58 off 39. In form Nitish Rana and Keiron Pollard failed to perform however.
It was Ben Stokes who bowled the 19th over and changed things for his team. Some very accurate bowling including some spot on Yorkers made the task too difficult for the home team in the end.-
Predictably, it was Ben Stokes who was named Player of the Match for the two important wickets he picked up (wickets of Jos Butler and Karn Sharma and catch of Hardik Pandya) and his 17 run contribution to his team’s total. Rohit Sharma won the Max Sixes award, Ajinkya Rahane won the Stylish Player of the Day award.
The turbanator scalped his 200th victim, claiming the all important wicket of Steve Smith. And he did it in some style: a slow ball that deceived and bowled out Smith.
On the sidelines was Sachin Tendulkar celebrating his 44th birthday. The cake was cricket themed of course and everyone joining together to sing Happy Birthday Sachin was just icing on the cake!
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