RPS had won four of their last five games at that point, and with a Play-offs spot well within reach, Smith said they were trying to achieve Tournament Play going into the final phase of IPL.
After defeating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their own den on May 3, Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) captain Steve Smith blurted out a term in the post-match presentation.
The term was “Tournament Play”, what the Australians call the art of peaking at the right time in a long tournament like the Indian Premier League (IPL). RPS had won four of their last five games at that point, and with a Play-offs spot well within reach, Smith said they were trying to achieve Tournament Play going into the final phase of IPL.
Achieve they did, winning two of their last three games, with the result being a second-place finish in the points table that gives them two bites at the IPL-10 cherry.
They will battle with Mumbai Indians (MI) in Qualifier 1 at the Wankhede here on Tuesday.
It’s a position not many expected RPS after a poor start this season. But if there’s one trend the IPL has seen last few years, it’s that teams that make winning a habit in the latter half of the tournament are the ones to watch out for in the business end.
In the 2013 IPL season, MI won five of their last six games. In 2014, KKR won six of their last six. In 2015, MI won five of their last six. In 2016, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) won five of their last six.
The common thread? All these teams were slow starters in their respective years, and all these teams entered the final with only RCB not winning the title.
The slow starters tag was passed on to RPS this time around. Not just slow, they were confused starters. Smith & Co. lost three of their first four games, failing to zero in on a right combination.
But once they zeroed in, they zoomed up. With the bowlers hitting their straps, fielders catching the white ball and Ben Stokes making every penny of his Rs14.5 crore count, RPS won eight of their last 10 games, and five of their last six.
In contrast, teams like SRH and KKR had a sprinting start to the season, only to lose breath at the fag end of the league stage and finish third and fourth, respectively.
MI, too, fall in that category, though not as short of breath as the above two teams. Rohit Sharma and his troops were out of the blocks quickly this season, and remained in fifth gear for the most part, coming out trumps in nine of the first 11 outings. However, they lost two of their last three ties.
PEAKING RIGHT
Rising Pune Supergiant were slow starters, but have gained momentum coming into the business end of the tournament:
W, L, L, L, W, W, W, L, W, W, W, W, L, W
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