Rising Pune Supergiant captain Steve Smith, on Sunday, stated that his team will miss Ben Stokes in the Indian Premier League play-offs after they comfortably beat Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets in Pune.
In what was a potential knock-out clash, Pune finished second in the points table behind Mumbai Indians, meaning they will get two shots for a place in the summit clash.
It was complete domination by the home team, which first skittled out Punjab for a paltry 73 and then knocked off the runs in only 12 overs. “It was a nice day. The bowlers did a terrific job,” said Smith.
“We were searching a bit in the first few games. We had new players coming in, we have a good balance now. Really good to finish second and have bites at the cherry,” he added.
The Australia captain also revealed that his team already have a couple of options lined up for the outgoing Ben Stokes, who has been a revelation in his maiden IPL season, “Yeah, we have a couple of options for Stokes. He has been magnificent and will be a big loss. Hopefully, the other guys will stand up for us,” Smith said.
Stokes, the costliest player of the season, will leave for national duty having scored 316 runs from 12 games with 103 not out being his highest. With the ball, the English all-rounder picked up 12 wickets from as many games.
Smith said toss played a crucial in deciding the outcome of the match. “We were fortunate to win the toss, the ball was stopping. It was an easy decision today, the wicket was sticky. Shardul [Thakur] was outstanding, [Jaydev] Unadkat, again, was outstanding,” he said.