MI v RPS, Player of the Match: Ben Stokes

For RPS to be break into the top-four of the points table, it needed Stokes’s helping hand. And, against table-topper Mumbai Indians (MI), he set up the win with the ball.

Ben Stokes celebrates a wicket.

Ben Stokes hadn’t yet lived up to his $2.16-million hype. He scored a 32-ball fifty against Kings XI Punjab a few days ago but Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) lost that game. This fifty apart, Stokes’s performances in this tournament have been meh. A 14-ball 21, a five-ball two, a three-ball two, a nine-ball 10. With the ball, too, he was neither dangerous nor economical.

For RPS to break into the top-four of the points table, it needed Stokes’s helping hand. And, against table-topper Mumbai Indians (MI), he set up the win with the ball. His two-wicket haul and a maiden helped his team to be the first to defend a target against MI this IPL. Also, both of MI’s defeats, so far, have come against RPS.