Ben Stokes powered Rising Pune Supergiant to something that they haven’t done before – defend a total. The English all-rounder was handed over the ball to break the partnership between Virat and AB de Villiers that looked to extend RPS’ record of failing to defend totals.

Steve Smith and his men, who were put to bat by the home team, posted a total of 161 runs in 20 overs. It wasn’t a mammoth target for RCB to achieve on their home turf with the likes of Kohli and de Villiers on their side.But the RPS bowlers had something different in store for the RCB as they bailed the team out of trouble and how.

That one man who stood tall with his bowling performance was the English all-rounder, Ben Stokes, who returnedcareer-best figures of 3 for 18. After having bounced out the dangerous ViratKohli for 21 runs, Stokes lead the charge with his pace and good length deliveries by striking at regular intervals.

We at iplt20.com caught up with the Man of the Match and found out more about his wicket-taking deliveries, MS Dhoni’s game-changing stumping and more….

Excerpts:

How did you plan Virat’s wicket? You knew he was going to play every delivery. Didn’t you?

To be honest, I had a second guess that I’m going to try and bowl him to the end of the mark and T20 is a tough game. On one of the days he could’ve just flown that delivery out for a six, but luck was on our side today and we managed to get the hunt.

How important was that spell from Dan Christian initially?

Dan managed to pull us back first. The RCB batsmen never seemed to get hold of him in terms of what he was doing with the ball, varying his lengths and his pace very well, and I don’t think the boys managed to pick him up well. To concede 26 runs in his four overs is a brilliant effort. Although he went wicketless, he contributed to the fall of wickets on the other end.

MS Dhoni stumped AB de Villiers. What do you think about his glove work behind the stumps?

He’s got amazing hands. If your foot is out of the crease even by a millimetre, you’re gone.

There was a battle of wits between you and Shane Watson as he hit you for a six and then you got his wicket later on. Run us through that contest.

We had a plan in terms of what we wanted to bowl and we found out that the balls that were bowled into the wicket, pace off, were the hardest ones to hit. We managed him after that four over cover and I stuck to what we knew is going to work best for us and it paid off in the end.

Lastly, two youngsters – Shardul Thakur and JaydevUnadkat – must be heartening to see them do well tonight?

We’ve got so much talent coming in through here. I’m meeting these guys for the first time and have been around them for the past two weeks or so. It is great to see them guys putting in all the hard work in the nets and now come out and perform when given an opportunity. Tonight they got tested throughout with different types of situations and bowled pretty well in those circumstances.