IPL 10 SRH vs RPS: Dhoni-Stokes help Pune post 148/8

Hyderabad: MS Dhoni and Ben Stokes continued their good form with bat to elevate a struggling Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) to a challenging total of 148/8 against an upbeat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) bowling attack in Indian Premier League match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Saturday.

Only four RPS batsmen could touch the double figures as SRH bowlers maintained a strong grip over the scoring rate throughout the inning, till MS Dhoni and Stokes started to take on the bowling aggressively.

Earlier, Rahul Tripathi (1 off 4) went back following an unfortunate run out while his opening partner Ajinkya Rahane got out after scoring 22 runs off 20 balls with the help of a six.

RPS captain Steve Smith and Ben Stokes strengthened the batting in the middle adding 60 runs for the third wicket off 47 balls. Stokes departed after adding 39 runs off 25 balls, hitting a four and three sixes. Smith went back to the dug-out at the individual score of 34 runs off 39 balls. He could not hit a single boundary in his inning today.

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Daniel Christian (4) and Manoj Tiwary (9) also failed to contribute much to the total.

Siddharth Kaul was the pick of the bowlers as he bagged 4 wickets for 29 runs off four overs. Rashid Khan and Bipul Sharma also plucked one wicket each for 18 and 39 runs, respectively, of their fover overs each.

SRh has come back on the ground to chaser down a modest target of 149 runs.