New Delhi: 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...
( IPL 2017 Final – RPS vs MI: Live Blog || Full coverage )
1) MI vs RPS, April 9, at Wankhede Stadium: This was the opening game of the season and it featured debutant Rising Pune Supergiant taking on two-time champions Mumbai Indians. Opting to bat first, Mumbai stumbled to 68/7 in the 16th over, but a late blitz from Harbhajan Singh (45) pushed them up to post a paltry 122. A 78-run opening stand between Ajinkya Rahane and Faf du Plessis with little assistance from Kevin Pietersen and RPS chased it down well with 14.4 overs.
2) RPS vs MI, May 1, MCA Stadium: Mumbai once again won the toss and this time decided to chase and it did the work. Saurabh Tiwary scored 57 and Steve Smith notched up 45 as Pune registred a total of 159. And it was skipper Rohit Sharma's elegancy that overshadowed their efforts. A patient knock of 85 runs by Rohit and MI successfully chased down the total to win by 8 wickets. This is MI's only win so far in two seasons.
3) RPS vs MI, April 6, MCA Stadium: Skipper Steve Smith and opener Rahane scored their respective fifties while unsold Imran Tahir proved his worth with 3/28 as RPS registered their second win in the 10th season of IPL.
4) MI vs RPS, April 24, at Wankhede Stadium: Put to bat first, Pune openers – Rahul Tripathi (45) and Ajinkya Rahane (38), stitched a splendid 78-run stand. But that didn't seem enough as the visitors ceased to a modest 160/6. And this is when Ben Stokes emerged as a hero. He took two important wickets in the last over to keep Pune's momentum going. RPS won by just three runs.
5) MI vs RPS, May 16, Wankhede Stadium: Mumbai went in as favourites with Pune looking all jittery in the absence of Imran Tahir and Ben Stokes. But an all-round performance from the visitors and Pune continued their dominance over Mumbai at Wankhede stadium. Rahane, Tiwary scored their fifties and Dhoni notched up 5 sixes to score 40 off 26 as Pune set forth a total of 163. A pace-spin combo of Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar, who scalped three-wickets each as RPS won by 20 runs. The win saw Pune take the shorter route to the finale.
HEAD-TO-HEAD: RPS lead by 4-1 in their past five encounters.
