IPL 2017: 5 factors for Rising Pune Supergiant's brilliant run

#5 Million dollar magic of Stokes

Stokes is starting to justify his huge price tag

By purchasing Ben Stokes for a record price of 14.5 crores in IPL auction, RPS attracted some criticism. But after winning three man-of-the-match awards in 10 games, Stokes has in some manner justified his price.

Stokes is Pune’s third highest run scorer and their third highest wicket taker as well. Plus he has been a brute force in the field taking sensational catches and saving crucial runs at the boundary. But beyond the numbers, what makes Stokes special is his ability to rise to the occasion and deliver at the crunch moment.

Against RCB, Stokes got the big wicket of Kohli in the sixth over and allowed Pune to defend a total of 162. Then against Mumbai, he conceded only seven runs to change the equation from 25 off 12 balls to 18 off 06 balls.

But the English all-rounder’s magic moment came last night against Gujarat. Chasing a target of 162, Pune were three for ten after the first nine balls of their innings. Stokes remained calm and anchored the innings by taking calculated risks after the initial collapse.

He realised the threat posed by Ankit Sharma and James Faulkner and was happy to play them out. But against Ravindra Jadeja, he took his chances and also attacked Basil Thampi to shatter his confidence. By combining aggression with defence, the left-hand batsman scored a match-winning hundred.

Due to his versatile skills and ability to keep a calm head, Ben Stokes has been the X-factor in Pune’s resurrection after a slow start.