06 April,2017 09:48 AM IST | | Shreeram Gokhale
Strong teams in the IPL have great home records. The likes of Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals — during their best times — transformed their home venue into a fort that was unbreakable
Steven Smith
Pune: Strong teams in the IPL have great home records. The likes of Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals - during their best times - transformed their home venue into a fort that was unbreakable. That is one area where the Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) failed miserably in their debut IPL season in 2016 when they lost four home games at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium here.
With a new skipper, the Supergiant would be hoping to correct that when they take on Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2017 opener today. "We need to win a few, score more runs than the opposition," is Supergiant skipper Steven Smith's solution to the problem. On a serious note, the Australian said, "Last year wasn't our year. We didn't play as well as we would have liked to. But in T20 cricket it doesn't really matter where you play, the wickets are the same.
You just need to play better than the opposition. It's a new year, and hopefully we start really well today." On paper, the Supergiant look a strong unit with the world's best batsman (Smith), best all-rounder (Ben Stokes) and best finisher (MS Dhoni) in their ranks.
But at least two of these three, along with last season's hero Ajinkya Rahane will have to fire consistently for the team to do well. The batsmen will have to take the responsibility.
