A six-match winning streak for Mumbai Indians came to an end as visitors Rising Pune Supergiant won by three runs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday.
Chasing 161 runs to win, Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma scored his first half-century of this season in the tournament but his knock of 58 went in vain as the team failed to pick up steam in the end overs.
Before the match, Mumbai boasted of the best run-rate in the final five overs but Ben Stokes came up with two wickets in his first seven balls without conceding a run. Stokes bowled his four overs in three spells and his tidy figures of 2-21 choked Mumbai in the final tally.
Wickets fell at regular intervals as Mumbai ended on 157 for eight despite two sixes in the 20th over.
“I don’t want to be critical of our performance,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation. “We have been playing good cricket. We have to forget tonight and move on.”
Pune squandered away a good start from openers Rahul Tripathi (45) and Ajinkya Rahane (38) to finish 160-6 after being 93 for one in the 12th over.
“We really scraped well in the end. 160 was probably around par on this wicket, but we are putting in the performances,” Pune captain Steve Smith said.
* The National staff
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