Steve Smith was all praise for MS Dhoni's innings of 40 not out off 26 balls after Rising Pune Supergiant beat Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday to enter the IPL final.
Dhoni hit 5 sixes in his innings as Pune posted 162. "It was a big day and big players stepped up. I thought MS was magnificent at the end with Manoj Tiwary. Rahane batted beautifully at the start to give us a chance to have a launch pad at the end," Smith said at the post-match presentation.
Pune smashed 41 runs in the last two overs. About it, Smith stated, "That was the momentum we needed going into the bowling innings. I thought the execution was fantastic. It was a slow wicket and it was difficult to time the ball but MS and Manoj did a terrific job to get a few over the fence and get us to that total.”
Smith felt teama need to peak at the right time in such long tournaments. "You need to peak at the right time in tournaments like this. We've played some really good cricket, coming back from a big win against Kings XI Punjab. Proud of the boys to have stepped up today. We didn't let them hit a lot, bowled back of a length and tried to take the pace off the ball and that's worked for us right throughout the tournament and tonight," Smith said.
--By A Cricket Correspondent
