Rahane finishes it with a six! Rising Pune finish second. Tossed-up offbreak on middle, uses his feet and lofts it in the air to the left of midwicket, who had been whisked in. It's all over for Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI vs Supergiant, 55th match at Pune, May 14 2017 - Ball by Ball Commentary
Supergiant won by 9 wickets (with 48 balls remaining)
6.30pm We have our four qualifiers. Mumbai will face Pune in Mumbai. Sunrisers will face KKR in the eliminator in Bengaluru. Stokes, however, will leave the IPL tonight. How will Pune cope without him?
This match was all but decided in the first half itself after Kings XI were dismissed for 73 - their lowest total in the IPL. Rahane and Smith then made sure of things in the chase.
Since the playoffs format started Teams that have finished 2nd in the league stage have won the IPL from 2011 to 2015. Sunrisers are the only team to win not finishing 2nd. They were 3rd.
Kushagra: "2nd from bottom in the last season to 2nd from top this season, well done RPS. Now they have their favourite opponents MI(3 victories 1 loss) to take down. All looks good apart from Stokes leaving for England."
"The toss had something to do with it," Maxwell says.The wicket was damp after a few days of rain. It was just about assessing the conditions. Everything went against us and we could not recover. We have lost our last five tosses. Unfortunately in the IPL, a lot can be decided by the toss. We did not finish last, which was great (Positives from the season?). The way we played our last four of five games was great. Axar was outstanding with bat, ball, and [in] the field. We will reflect on the positives in the change room. Thanks to the fans for the support.
"It was a nice day, wasn't it. The bowlers did a terrific job," Smith says. "Was fortunate to win the toss, the ball was stopping. It was an easy decision today, the wicket was sticky. Shardul was outstanding, Unadkat again was outstanding. We were searching a bit in the first few games. We had new players coming in, we have a good balance now. Really good to finish second and have bites at the cherry. Yeah, we have a couple of options for Stokes. He has been magnificent and will be a big boss. Hopefully, the other guys will stand up for us."
"Well, it has been brilliant," Unadkat, Man of the Match, says. We have done all that we have planned in the team meeting. The execution has been brilliant. It has been helping me personally as well. To simply things is what I have done. It was a team effort. Ben, Dan, everyone chipped in. Ben was an integral part of the team. Having said that, we have won a game without him.
Rahane feigns to move outside leg, this is fired on middle and leg, defended
slider on off, Smith eases a single down to long-on
short and outside off, swatted on the back foot to long-on
Rahane backs away outside leg, Maxwell chases him, Rahane gets it through backward point
short on off, calmly punched down to long-on
googly? Drifts in, inside-edged onto the pad
full outside off, pushed to point
short and skids on outside off, back-foot force to long-on
back of a length on off, punched down to long-on
flicked from off stump to midwicket
slider on middle and leg, glanced away fine of long leg
short and outside off again, shovel-pulled away to wide long-on
fractionally short and outside off, Rahane picks the length up early, stepping back and pulling to long-on
opens the face and guides it to point
fired outside off, whipped in the direction of deep midwicket
full and outside off, bunted to the right of Maxi
flat on middle and leg, pushed to long-on
Javed: "Such an anti climax this match turned out to be, courtesy Punjab batters." --- Maxwell to roll his arm over
opens the face and punches it crisply through point
short and wide outside off, cut away with the turn to the left of sweeper
Over 12 • RPS 78/1
Supergiant won by 9 wickets (with 48 balls remaining)