IPL 2017 : - Rising Pune Supergiant vs Gujarat Lions: Ben Stokes guides RPS to 5-wicket win

Pune, May 1: Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) thrash Gujarat Lions (GL) by 5 wickets in the match 39 of IPL 2017 thanks to a ton from Ben Stokes.  The English all-rounder who is the highest paid IPL player, scored his maiden century in the tournament to guide his team to glory from a pressure situation. Stokes remained unbeaten on 103 off just 63 balls.  Batting first, Gujarat Lions managed to score 161 runs courtesy a quickfire 45 runs innings of Brendon McCullum. Imran Tahir and Jaydev Unadkat took 3 wickets each.  01:13 IPL 10: Mumbai win to toss & invite Hyderabad to bat first 01:57 IPL 10: Ashish Nehra feels its easy to say but difficult to bowl yorkers 01:32 IPL 10 : Kolkata pays tribute to Sukhma martyrs, spot black bands In reply, RPS lost their first 3 wickets with 1.3 overs and were languishing badly. But Stokes and Dhoni's partnership gave them much needed stability. The English player remained at the crease until the very end to guide RPS to a convincing win. Here are the highlights of Pune Vs Gujarat match: # RPS captain Steve Smith won the toss and elected to field first # Ishan Kishan and Brendon McCullum opened the innings for Gujarat Lions # Ishan Kishan scored 31 off 24 balls,



while McCullum scored 45 off 27 balls # The opening partnership of 55 runs was broken by Imran Tahir # Imran Tahir was on a hat-trick in his third and the innings' 10th overs, he took Aaron Finch and Dwayne Smith's wickets. # Dinesh Karthik was the second highest scorer for GL (29 off 26 balls) # Imran Tahir once shined with the ball as he took 3 wickets for 27 runs in 4 overs. # Jaydev Unadkat took 2 wickets in the final and total of 3 to restrict Gujarat to 161 # In reply, Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi opened the innings for RPS # Pradeep Sangwan took two wickets in the very first over of Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith # Basil Thampi then struck in the second over dismissing Manoj Tiwary for a duck # Pune were reduced 10/3 within the 1.3 overs # Rahul Tripathi was the fourth wicket to fall, Pune were 42/4. # Ben Stokes and MS Dhoni created a partnership of 76 runs # MS Dhoni was dismissed by Basil Thampi for 26 runs off 33 balls # Ben Stokes scored his maiden IPL century, 103*(63 balls) # RPS scored 44 runs in the last 4 overs # Pune defeated Gujarat by 5 wickets # Ben Stokes was given the man of the match award   IPL 10 : Gujarat set 162 run target for Pune, Kishan – McCullum give roaring start