IPL 2017: 5 factors for Rising Pune Supergiant's brilliant run
After an erratic start to the IPL 2017, Rising Pune Supergiant, in the last few games, have raised their tempo to feature in the top four teams in the points table.
Supergiant lost three of their first four matches and in most of these games, they were completely outplayed by the opposition. But then things changed and Pune won crucial games against KKR and MI - the top two teams of the season. The confidence from these victories certainly boosted the team and now with six wins from 10 matches, they have made a solid case for the playoffs.
So what has been the secret behind Pune’s emphatic rise? Here we look at the top five reasons for Pune’s super rise in this IPL 2017.
#1 Rahul Tripathi’s solid starts
Rahul Tripathi until April 1, 2017, hadn’t played any international cricket, had a List A average of 24.73 and featured in only 13 T20 games. Fast forward to May 1, 2017, he is among the top 15 run scorers in IPL 2017, is the first choice opener for RPS and has even overshadowed Ajinkya Rahane.
With six consecutive scores of 30 plus, Rahul Tripathi is the reason for Pune’s middle order playing their natural game. He has only one fifty to his name but his solid and consistent starts have ensured that Pune don’t lose many wickets in the first six overs and also gather vital runs.
The Maharashtra batsman has scored 259 runs from 8 innings so far and is second to Steve Smith in terms of most runs for RPS. The key factor of his batting is his strike rate of 148.00 which takes out the pressure from Rahane and Steve Smith who generally consume some time to get set.