Ben Stokes roared back to form on Sunday with an unbeaten 107 that helped Rajasthan Royals (RR) race to an eight-wicket win over Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. The win provides a filip to RR's floundering chances of making it to the playoffs, which still depends upon the results of other matches.
"Sort of bittersweet to be honest - it took so long to get one for the team. I would have preferred to get this form two or three games before when we weren't relying on other results to get us through to the qualifiers," said Stokes in the post-match presentation ceremony, in which he was declared player of the match.
"It's always nice to get back to form. We needed a result from today, so - it's a good victory."
Stokes comes into the match after making scores of 30, 19, 15, 41, and 5 thus far in the IPL. He said that he had his best training session on Saturday since coming to the UAE and took that confidence into the match. His innings on Sunday helped RR chase down a target of 196 with eight wickets and more than two overs to spare and was part of an unbeaten 152-run stand for the third wicket with Sanju Samson.
"Training yesterday was the best I have had for the full time I have been here. Came into the game with a lot more confidence than the other games. Nice to spend some time out in the middle and finish the game off," he said.