Rising Pune Supergiants under a new leadership of Steven Smith has not done well. They are languishing at the bottom of the table since the tournament has begun. In their five matches, they have only two games, their first against Mumbai Indians and the last game against Royal Challengers Bangalore. In their previous meeting against Mumbai Indians, with their captain’s effort, they chased down 185. Now, this is a return game of the season for both in Mumbai.
In their last game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Pune won the match due to a brilliant innings from MS Dhoni. In all six matches so far this was for the first time they chased a daunting target 176 against a formidable Sunrisers. One major worry for Pune bowling as apart from Imran Tahir, rest of the line-up is pretty ordinary.
Previous Encounter-
In their previous meeting against Mumbai Indians, Pune were the better side, Ajinkya Rahane and Steven Smith both scored half-centuries to help Pune beat Mumbai. Though match went to the last over the finish with skipper Smith finishing the game with two sixes. Mumbai Indians scored 184 runs while batting first.
Recent Form-
RPS- W L L L W
MI- L W W W W W
Talking Points-
MS Dhoni, in first five games, failed to live up to his billing; but smashed a very good bowling line-up of SRH to hand his team a miraculous. However, in the first four innings, Dhoni did not even have strike-rate of 100 and against Bangalore he looked like slowly he is gaining back his timing and striking ability. He sent one of Chahal’s delivery on to the roof of Chinnaswamy and later in keeping he stumped AB de Villiers in his usual way, which proved crucial for Pune. I do not see them making changes in their previous match winning combination, though I still believe MS Dhoni should bat at Number three position.
Predicted XI-
Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Tripathi, MS Dhoni(WK), Steven Smith(C), Monoj Tiwary, Ben Stokes, Dan Christian, Rahul Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Imran Tahir.
