Stokes, the sublime acrobat

Apr 16, 2017

Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi laid a solid platform with a 63-run opening stand after Rising Pune Supergiant were put in to bat•BCCI

MS Dhoni hit a six that went out of the stadium but finished with 28 off 25 balls•BCCI

Virat Kohli was put down at slip in the second over of the chase •BCCI

But Pune were able to gain the upper hand as Kohli was caught by Rahane on the cover boundary for 28•BCCI

... pulled off a supreme effort at the long-on boundary to prevent a six•BCCI

Then Samuel Badree went past Rahane's defence with a googly•BCCI

Pune lost ground in the middle overs, slumping from 127 for 2 to 130 for 7 •BCCI

Three balls later, Shardul Thakur found Mandeep Singh's outside edge and a more willing catcher behind the stumps•BCCI

And de Villiers was stumped for 29 off 30 balls•BCCI

From 91 for 3, RCB creaked to 132 for 9 and were beaten by 27 runs•BCCI

But Manoj Tiwary slammed a timely 27 off 11 balls to lift the score to 161•BCCI

AB de Villiers sounded a warning when he struck his first ball for four •BCCI

Stokes then flattened Shane Watson's middle stump and... •BCCI