The Indian Premier League’s tenth edition is in full swing now and we are able to see some clear indications of team strengths and weaknesses. Sunday was day 12 at IPL 2017 with two fixtures. Mumbai Indians took on Gujarat Lions at the Wankhede Stadium in their home city while Royal Challengers Bangalore took on Rising Pune Supergiants at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. We look at the highlights of matches 16 and 17 of IPL 2017.
Captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first. Gujarat lost opener Dwayne Smith without him having scored. His partner Brendon McCullum however, went on to make the most runs for his team; 64 off 44 balls (strike rate of 145). Skipper Suresh Raina contributed 28 off 29 and Dinesh Karthik made 48 off just 26 balls. The visitors set up a target of 177 for the hosts to chase.
In what has now become a trademark of the team, the Mumbai Indians managed to pull off an all round good team effort to pull off a victory. Though opener Parthiv Patel departed without scoring, Jos Butler made 26 from 24. Happily for the team, skipper Rohit came through with a fast paced 40 off 29 and remained not out till the end.
He was the highest scorer for his team and his 53 came from just 36 balls. For this he was conferred the Man of the Match award. MI won by six wickets and 3 balls to spare.
Both sides came into the game desperate for a win; both having won just 1 of their 4 respective matches. Virat Kohli won the toss for his team and decided to field. The Pune team started well with the openers Ajinkya Rahane (30 off 25) and Rahul Tirupati (31 off 23) creating a good launch pad. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28 off 25), skipper Steve Smith (27 off 24) and Manoy Tiwary were others who made significant contributions to take RPS to a total of 161.
Opening for his team, Virat Kohli made 28 off 19, but the other opener Mandeep Singh departed without scoring. Ultimately, the efforts of A B de Villiers (29 off 30), Kedar Jadhav, Shane Watson and Stuart Binny were not good enough to save the day. RCB fell short by 26 runs and at the end were 134 for the loss of 9 wickets.
The New Zealander took three wickets to dismiss danger man Virat Kohli, bowling out Shane Watson and Adam Milne. His economical bowling – he conceded just 18 runs from his four overs – was instrumental in his team winning. Manoj Tiwary was named the stylish player of the day for his blistering 27 off just 11 balls towards the end of the innings.
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