Another Stokes special, another Pune win
Star turn
It's that man: Ben Stokes, again. He has been the force behind Pune's rise this season , both with the bat and ball. On Saturday afternoon, he was at it in the field too, proving his all-round worth and leading the side to second place in the league.
When Stokes came out to bat on a two-paced track in the seventh over, Rising Pune had scored just one boundary. The boundary count remained the same until the 10th over. Against the run of play, Stokes then defied the slowness of the pitch with back-to-back brutal sixes over midwicket off left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma. Stokes' electric 39 off 25 balls charged Rising Pune to 148 for 7 from nowhere.
Dismissing David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, and Kane Williamson in the same innings is the fantasy of T20 bowlers. Stokes lived that fantasy in the chase with clever cross-seam deliveries, which jumped off the pitch or skidded low. All three batsmen were harried by bounce or the lack of it. Stokes followed it up with two well-judged swirling catches in the deep to hasten Jaydev Unadkat's hat-trick and Sunrisers' downfall.
The wow moment
On a pitch where Ajinkya Rahane and Steven Smith - who faced 39 balls without scoring a boundary - struggled to get the ball off the square, Stokes was so fluent that he was middling reverse sweeps. He attempted the shot against the legspin of Rashid Khan but hit it straight to backward point. He dared to play the same shot against Siddarth Kaul, who would finish with 4 for 19. Seeing Stokes pre-meditate, Kaul floated a slower, knuckle ball on middle stump, but Stokes manufactured his own pace, and sent the ball flying over backward point with a reverse-swat.
Stats that matter
- Stokes became only the third player, after Ravindra Jadeja and JP Duminy, to score more than 30 runs, and take three wickets and two catches in an IPL match
- Stokes targeted Bipul Sharma, smashing 27 runs off 11 balls at a strike-rate of 245.45
What they said
"@benstokes38 worth his weight in gold."
Harsha Bhogle, on Twitter
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo