Highlights, Rising Pune Supergiant vs Gujarat Lions IPL 2017, Match 39: Ben Stokes’ 103* helps RPS beat GL

Hello, good evening and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket blog and updates’ post of the match No. 39 in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017, between the in-form Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) and the blow hot, blow cold Gujarat Lions (GL). The game will be played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune, and the heat will be completely on the visiting side, who are currently at the sixth spot in the points table. With just 3 wins and 6 defeats in 9 matches, the batting-heavy Gujarat are languishing towards the bottom and now depend on others to make it to the next round. Full Cricket Scorecard, Rising Pune Supergiant vs Gujarat Lions, IPL 2017, Match 39

The Steven Smith-led RPS, on the other hand, are looking better with 5 wins from 9 games. They are currently at the fourth spot in the IPL 10 points table and in a much better space. A couple of wins from the remaining 5 games will potentially put them in the IPL 2017 playoffs. The Pune side started slowly in the tournament, but have since picked up pace to find themselves in a favourable situation. The stars of their turnaround have been skipper Smith, young Rahul Tripathi and Manoj Tiwary with the bat while Ben Stokes, Imran Tahir, Jaydev Unadkat et al have excelled with the ball.

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Gujarat have tried many players from their bench, but are yet to find a perfect XI. Irfan Pathan, who was brought in as Dwayne Bravo’s replacement to the squad, has failed to live up to the hype in his first match. He conceded 26 runs from his 2 overs and could score only 2 runs with the bat. Gujarat would want him to fire so that the side can achieve the desired balance, more so because they have also lost their best bowler Andrew Tye to injury.

GL have never lost to RPS in their last three meetings. The last time these two teams met was on April 14, when Tye’s hat-trick sunk RPS. He finished with 5 for 17. But GL won the match easily by 7 wickets and with 12 balls to spare. With no Tye around this time, Pune would hope to carry the momentum from last 4-5 games and win at home, thus pocketing crucial 2 points.

Rising Pune Supergiant: Steven Smith (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Manoj Tiwary, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Dinda, Rajat Bhatia, Mayank Agarwal, Ben Stokes, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar, Adam Zampa, Daniel Christian, Jaydev Unadkat, Usman Khawaja, Ankit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Baba Aparajith, Ishwar Pandey, Shardul Thakur, Rahul Tripathi, Ankush Bains, Saurabh Kumar, Lockie Ferguson, Jaskaran Singh, Milind Tandon, Rahul Chahar

Gujarat Lions: Dinesh Karthik (wk), Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Suresh Raina (c), Praveen Kumar, Manpreet Gony, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aaron Finch, Shadab Bashir Jakati, Jason Roy, Ankit Soni, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Jaydev Shah, Pradeep Sangwan, James Faulkner, Akshdeep Nath, Andrew Tye, Chirag Suri, Basil Thampi, Ishan Kishan, Nathu Singh, Shubham Agarwal, Tejas Baroka, Pratham Singh, Shelley Shaurya

Full Cricket Scorecard, Rising Pune Supergiant vs Gujarat Lions, IPL 2017, Match 39