IPL 2017: “Ben Stokes Was Missed, He Is A World Class Player,” Says Steven Smith After Loss Against KKR
Dec 23, 2018 at 11:12 AM
After winning three back to back games, Rising Pune Supergiant was back on the losing track, as the franchise lost a high scoring game against Kolkata Knight Riders, which was an easy win for the visitors.
The momentum of the game was tilted towards KKR the moment they won the toss and experienced duo of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa ensured a win for the team in the end.
Once again, Rising Pune Supergiant had a great start, as the first wicket pair of Rahul Tripathi and Ajinkya Rahane shared 65 runs for the first wicket. Tripathi was the first one to go on a score of 38 of 23 balls. Rahane and skipper Steven Smith then shared a partnership of 47 runs but they consumed 34 deliveries to score those runs.
After Rahane’s dismissal, the former skipper MS Dhoni came to the fore and he played his role perfectly, as he bashed 23 runs in just 11 balls to increase the run rate of the team.
Daniel Christian 16 off six in the later part of the innings also helped the team to put up a defending total on the board but still, they ended as the losing side.
There were few moments during batting when RPS’s run-rate slowed down, which was the main reason for the loss.
Here is what losing captain Steven Smith after the game –
Steven Smith:
“At the halfway point I thought it was a good total. The wicket was reasonably slow and boys did well to get 180. But the dew came in and the wicket sped up. You could see guys were able to hit through the line beautifully. Gauti and Uthappa paced their innings beautifully. Yeah, Stokes was missed, he’s a world-class performer but he was injured. We’ve been dropping a few catches and it’s something we have got to change. Not sure whether it’s an attitude thing or not. Guys are working on it in training but just haven’t been able to put it together on the field. It can happen sometimes.