11.30pm Stokes lets out a big roar and swipes his bat on the floor again. He simply owned the MCA Stadium tonight. Rising Pune needed 162. Stokes alone smashed an unbeaten 103 even as wickets fell around him.

He came into bat in the second over after Pune had lost Rahane, Smith, and Tiwary. He found his groove right away and hit his fifty off 38 balls. MS Dhoni started slowly again and continued to struggle as the asking rate ballooned. Stokes, however, pricked that balloon, reaching his second fifty off 23 balls.

It boiled down to 44 off 23 balls after Dhoni holed out to long-off. While Stokes pulled out all the stops, Christian did his bit by not playing a single dot. He kept turning the strike over to Stokes. This result now means RCB are out of the tournament.

Raina: The last over he did not bowl out. The dew was there when Basil and Jimmy were bowling. Credit to Stokes. We did not much power in the spinning department, but Stokes did well. I would say we were 25-30 runs short. We kept losing wickets and we were all out. Still I think we bowled well in the first six overs. The way Stokes was hitting was the turning point. The way he was hitting, clean strikes. Still we have four games left. Hopefully things will turn out better for us.

Smith: It wasn't an ideal start but we have some artillery in the shed. MS and Stoksy took it deep. It is one of the easier ground to his sixes and Stokesy made use of it. I thought it was a great effort for the bowlers to pull it back to 160. One of the balls hit the side of the hoarding, taking a chunk out of it, and the ball started reversing. We are peaking at the right time, hopefully not too early. As I said, Lockie was unlucky to miss out. Stoksy is a quality player and he certainly earned his cash. Fantastic player and very proud of him.

Stokes, of course, is the Match of the Match: It's just a cramp in the calf. The legs aren't alright but it will be alright in the morning. We lost quite a few early wickets... me and MS just tried to keep it ticking. Numbers game: we just tried to go big at the start of the over and cool it off (what was the plan?). I actually think it did me good (the niggle) and I had a rest. Maybe I was doing some training that did not benefit me. I just let my natural instincts to take over.

This is Stokes' third Man-of-the-match award this season, more than any other player. Gee! that was some innings. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did bringing it to you. Until next time, goodbye and cheers!

India's Shiv Kapur won the Yeangder Heritage golf tournament in Taiwan on Sunday -- his first win on the Asian tour for 12 years. He told our sister site ESPN.in how he overcame his self-doubts and even took help from Robin Uthappa and Dean Jones.

Sauharda: "Had Christian hit that last ball for 4, today matches would have been won coincidently in similar fashion; same numbers of wickets down and same runs on the board. #justathought"

Siddarth: "Bowling his 4 overs with many balls over 140 and then coming back to score a century to win the game. Its a super human stuff. Take a bow, Ben Stokes "

Amar: "Dhoni may have been slow but it made the Pune innings stable. The Dhoni-Stokes partnetship of 76 runs was critical."

Vinod Rajpal: "The Million $ show , Thank U Ben...."

srini: "Pacing of the innings, picking the right balls to hit, keeping cool ....absolute brilliance...this innings from Stokes."

Faulkner to bowl the last over. Pune need 8 off the last over

Only five scores of 90 or over have come in losing chases in IPL

Pune need 25 off 12 balls. Thampi has one over left. Who will bowl the other. Faulkner or Smith or Jadeja? Thampi to bowl the penultimate over

Akash Sharma: "That must be the biggest slow ball in term of lace variation. Thampi usually bowls at North of 140. That bowl was a mere 85. A difference of whopping 55 kmph. Just freaking awesome..." --- Here is Sangwan

Samrat Ahuja: "Hats off to the IPL scouts! Unearthed talents like Thampi, Siraj, Soni and Natarajan out of obscurity... "

Christian

Thampi v Dhoni