Pune, May 2: After consolidating their 4th spot in the table at IPL 2017, courtesy Ben Stokes' unbeaten 103, Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) skipper Steve Smith feels they are "peaking at the right time". (Match scorecard)
RPS beat Gujarat Lions by five wickets after a top-order collapse and now stand pretty at fourth spot with 12 points. (Match photos)
"It wasn't an ideal start but we have some artillery in the shed. MS and Stoksy took it deep. It is one of the easier ground to his sixes and Stokesy made use of it. I thought it was a great effort for the bowlers to pull it back to 160. We are peaking at the right time, hopefully not early," Smith said after the match last night (May 1).
"Stoksy is a quality player and he certainly earned his cash. Fantastic player and very proud of him," he added.
At this year's players auction, Stokes became the costliest overseas player as RPS bought him for Rs 14.5 crore.
Stokes, who added 76 runs for the fifth wicket with former India captian MS Dhoni to repair the innings, said their plan was to rotate the strike.
"We lost quite a few early wickets... me and MS just tried to keep it ticking. Numbers game: we just tried to go big at the start of the over and cool it off," he said.
Lions skipper Suresh Raina not having quality spin attack hurt them in the match.
"The dew was there when Basil and Jimmy were bowling. Credit to Stokes. We did not have much power in the spinning department, but Stokes did well. I would say we were 25-30 runs short.
"We kept losing wickets and we were all out. Still I think we bowled well in the first six overs. The way Stokes was hitting was the turning point. The way he was hitting, clean strikes," he said.
"Still we have four games left. Hopefully things will turn out better for us," Raina signed off.
PTI