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IPL 2017: Qualifier 1, RPS vs MI: 5 players to watch out for

Rahul Tripathi has arguably been the find of the season in the IPL

Rising Pune Supergiant and Mumbai Indians will be locking horns in the first game of the playoffs in this edition’s Indian Premier League after having shelled out astounding individual and team performances to end up with the top two slots in the league table. While Pune came back after a string of defeats earlier in the tournament, Mumbai Indians had been at the top of things throughout the entire length of the league stage.

Both Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants have lost key players due to national duties and the playoffs will a test of their squad strength as the team will look forward to their heroes to step forward as the running gets tougher.

With a look ahead to the first Qualifier, here are five players who we think will have a telling impact on tonight’s proceedings.

#5 Rahul Tripathi

Rahul Tripathi wasn’t an automatic choice for the Rising Pune Supergiant, to begin with, and was inducted into the team after Pune faltered in the opening few games. In the first go, he was assigned the responsibility of batting in the middle order with Pune going top heavy.

However, a string of losses and an underperforming Mayank Agarwal induced the team management to send Tripathi to open with Ajinkya Rahane. Since then the swashbuckling batsman from Ranchi hasn’t looked back, piling up runs at a fair clip.

With an unflinching approach, he has trashed bowlers to all corners of the ground and it was because of his exploits that Pune got off to some rollicking starts in the powerplays. If Pune has to nominate themselves as the frontrunners for winning the Qualifier 1, Tripathi has to fire all cylinders to push the Mumbai bowling attack back.

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