RPS News

Rayudu was recently involved in an on-road altercation with a senior citizen while on his way to the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday.

While some credit the entire bowling unit, others to the clever field set-up, but a lot goes out to Mitchell Johnson, who held onto his nerves in the final over, brought all his experience to use and restricted Pune from their maiden title.

While Mumbai Indians went ahead to script history, becoming the first team to win three IPL trophies, when they defeated Rising Pune Supergiant in a pulsating Sunday finale at Hyderabad, there was this one Twitterati who made predictions, much ahead of the match and almost all of them were right.

Rising Pune Supergiant were on course to win the title but the MI pace trio of Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Johnson choked the rivals to script a thrilling win.

This was Mumbai Indians' third IPL trophy in 10 editions and more special for their skipper Rohit Sharma, who is the only captain to win a hat-trick of titles. Rohit has in fact won four IPL titles (one for Deccan Chargers in 2009).

As the two Maharashtrian franchises, Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant, gear up for the big Sunday Finale, let us take a walk down memory lane to look at past encounters...

With the match against Mumbai Indians, Rising Pune Supergiant will bring an end to their 2-year stay in the Indian Premier League.

And it all squares down to one. Six weeks of intense cricketing action equates down to the blockbuster Sunday Finale between the two Maharashtrian cousins, for the fourth time this season. It is Mumbai Indians taking on Rising Pune Supergiant at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.

RPS will miss the service of their Rs. 14.50 crore buy Ben Stokes in the final.  

 One month and three weeks of action-packed tournament comes down to Sunday's final, where the two Maharashtrian sides will face off for the fourth time this season.

Even on paper, there is not much to choose, especially with Pune beating MI thrice this season including a comprehensive victory in Qualifier 1. But final is a new day and MI can always be fourth time lucky.

Tripathi, who failed to get going in the first qualifier against Mumbai Indians, after getting out for a duck, however, pledged to back his instincts in the IPL final in Hyderabad on Sunday.

According to cricket statisticians, Suresh Raina, Dhoni, Rohit and Ravichandran Ashwin, have all been part of six T20 fnals. And now with both RPS and MI reaching the final for the 10th season of IPL, only one between Dhoni and Rohit will shift a notch higher in terms of winners medals.

Mumbai had lost all the three matches against Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Steve Smith's side in league stages.

The Bengal batsman, who has amassed 317 runs in 12 innings, not only played some good innings in the ongoing league but also played an important role for RPS in in the first Qualifier against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday.

In 11 matches so far, Unadkat has picked 22 wickets at 13.77, including a five-wicket haul. 

Dhoni smashed five sixes in his 40-run knock that propelled Supergiant to 162 four four. Supergiant reached the final with a 20-run win.

"These kinds of things can happen in this format when someone like (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni is batting. Obviously we were in control, but I won't say it (loss) was just because of those two overs," said wicket-keeper Patel in the post-match media conference at the Wankhede Stadium.

RPS skipper Steve Smith has been taking vital inputs from MS Dhoni for the betterment of the team in IPL 2017.

"The shot selection is very important. You need to understand the situation and the conditions and respect them. You've to pick the gaps and take it to the end and we didn't do that. It's not the end of the world, we still have one more shot in Bangalore," he added.