The 23rd day of the 10th edition of the IPL was a happy day for Maharashtra. Both its teams, the Mumbai Indians and the Rising Pune Supergiant, won comprehensively in the double header yesterday. Mumbai Indians are now on a roll with four consecutive wins under their belt.
Winning on their home turf while keeping 6 wickets in their hands, the Rohit Sharma-led team is now looking like a prospective candidate for this year’s title! Nitish Rana, the find of the season so far, scored yet another fifty in the match and has not disappointed for a second in the tournament.
RPS finally ended its 10-match losing streak while batting first. The win came against one of the strongest batting line-ups of the tournament and that too, at their home ground. Can’t get better than that now, can it? Ben Stokes proved worthy of his auction money as he collected 3 wickets along with a Man of the Match trophy. MS Dhoni too finally looked like getting some of his spark back when a characteristic six from him threw the fans – and twitter – into a tumultuous frenzy.
RCB truly need to buck up now – they have suffered their third consecutive defeat of the tournament and have just one win in five matches. In spite of boasting of a strong batting order that includes the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Shane Watson, the team is nowhere near threatening. It has the bench strength to drop a powerful hitter like Chris Gayle but it seems that it doesn’t have the zing to win.
Let us look at the leading run scorers and leading wicket-takers after the match between RCB and RPS.
Leading run scorers
| Position | Player | Matches | Innings | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nitish Rana (MI) | 5 | 5 | 193 | 38.6 | 133.1 | 0 | 2 | 53 |
| 2 | Gautam Gambhir (KKR) | 4 | 4 | 182 | 91 | 144.44 | 0 | 2 | 76* |
| 3 | Steve Smith (RPS) | 4 | 4 | 180 | 60 | 135.34 | 0 | 1 | 84* |
| 4 | David Warner (SRH) | 4 | 4 | 165 | 55 | 141.03 | 0 | 1 | 76* |
| 5 | Keiron Pollard (MI) | 5 | 5 | 164 | 32.8 | 142.61 | 0 | 1 | 70 |
| 6 | Brendon McCullum (GL) | 4 | 4 | 153 | 38.25 | 139.09 | 0 | 1 | 64 |
| 7 | Manish Pandey (KKR) | 4 | 3 | 152 | 152 | 155.1 | 0 | 1 | 81* |
| 8 | A B de Villiers (RCB) | 3 | 3 | 137 | 68.5 | 141.24 | 0 | 1 | 89* |
| 9 | Suresh Raina (GL) | 4 | 4 | 136 | 68 | 123.64 | 0 | 1 | 68* |
| 10 | Sanju Samson (DD) | 3 | 3 | 134 | 44.67 | 144.09 | 1 | 0 | 102 |
Leading wicket takers
| Position | Player | Matches | Wickets | Overs | Runs | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (SRH) | 4 | 10 | 16 | 89 | 5.56 |
| 2 | Imran Tahir (RPS) | 5 | 8 | 20 | 161 | 8.05 |
| 3 | Chris Morris (DD) | 3 | 7 | 10 | 63 | 6.3 |
| 4 | Rashid Khan (SRH) | 4 | 7 | 16 | 103 | 6.44 |
| 5 | Andrew Tye (RCB) | 2 | 7 | 8 | 51 | 6.38 |
| 6 | Mitchell McClenaghan (MI) | 5 | 7 | 20 | 173 | 8.65 |
| 7 | Chris Woakes (KKR) | 4 | 5 | 14 | 148 | 10.57 |
| 8 | Varun Aaron (KXIP) | 3 | 5 | 10 | 89 | 8.9 |
| 9 | Zaheer Khan (DD) | 3 | 5 | 11 | 89 | 8.09 |
| 10 | Ashish Nehra (SRH) | 4 | 5 | 16 | 150 | 9.38 |
Nitish Rana’s consistent strokeplay and cool temperament have helped him earn the top spot in the Orange Cap race. It will be interesting to see if the youngster can keep up the good performance in the latter, more pressure-filled stages of the tournament. Gautam Gambhir is just 11 runs behind though and can definitely catch up to Rana in his innings against the Delhi Daredevils today.
Meanwhile, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, being 2 wickets ahead and one match behind Imran Tahir, still has some breathing room to retain his Purple Cap.
Let us look at the points table now.
Points table:
| Position | Team | Played | Won | Lost | No Result | Net Run Rate | Points | Last Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mumbai Indians | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0.302 | 8 | Beat GL by 6 wickets |
| 2 | Kolkata Knight Riders | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1.265 | 6 | Beat SRH by 17 runs |
| 3 | Delhi Daredevils | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2.217 | 4 | Beat KXIP by 51 runs |
| 4 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.632 | 4 | Lost to Mumbai by 17 runs |
| 5 | Kings XI Punjab | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | -0.309 | 4 | Lost to DD by 51 runs |
| 6 | Rising Pune Supergiant | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | -0.942 | 4 | Beat RCB by 27 runs |
| 7 | Gujarat Lions | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | -1.084 | 2 | Lost to MI by 6 wickets |
| 8 | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | -1.095 | 2 | Lost to RPS by 27 runs |
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