INDORE: A half-century from Ben Stokes and some late hitting from Manoj Tiwary have helped visitors Rising Pune Supergiant set a target of 164 for hosts Kings XI Punjab in the IPL 10 match at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Saturday.
As the Pune batsmen, including Steve Smith and MS Dhoni, failing to capitalise on a flat track, it was Stokes, the most expensive player in this IPL, and Tiwary who put on a late show for RPS record a respectable total.
Stokes who raced to 50 in 30 balls would have liked to stay around a little longer but fell to Axar Patel soon after hitting the half ton. Though, Tiwary, who scored 40 from 23, and Daniel Christian who hit 17 from 8 balls helped RPS past the 160 mark hitting 30 in the final two overs.
Dropping England captain Eoin Morgan, Kings XI went with Hashim Amla, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis and skipper Glen Maxwell as their foreigners. While there was no room for pacer Ishant Sharma in the starting 11, uncapped T Natarajan made his IPL debut.
It was the start Kings XI wanted after sending Pune to bat as Sandeep Sharma castled Mayank Agarwal for a duck with the fifth delivery of the game.
Sandeep could have had his second victim had Manan Vohra scooped Ajinkya Rahane after the opener top-edged the seamer in the fourth over.
Natarajan made an instant impact on his IPL bow as Rahane could only pick Stoinis at sweeper cover going for a full and wide second delivery from the Tamil Nadu medium pacer.
Maxwell had said on the eve of the match that restricting RPS skipper Steve Smith would be key to his team's success and that is what the Kings XI did next. Aussie skipper pulled Stoinis but was caught near the boundary for 26 -- Vohra redeeming himself with a smart catch this time.
Former skipper Dhoni was the next to go just when it looked like and he and Stokes were building a partnership to save the visitors. His score at 5, Dhoni offered a tame return catch to left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh with RPS struggling at 71 for 4 in the 12th over.
Stokes, justifying his price tag, kept going and brought up his half-century in 30 balls aided by Tiwary at the other end and taking RPS past 130 by the 18th over. The English all-rounder did not hang around for long as he was caught and bowled by Axar.