Blistering Steve Smith and Rising Pune Supergiants's death overs woes

For the third game in a row, Steven Smith, Rising Pune Supergiants' No. 3 batsman, had to come to the crease before the third over. When RPS, one of two latest entrants in the Indian Premier League (IPL), started their maiden season, it was with a 78-run opening stand between Ajinkya Rahane and Faf du Plessis. Supergiants' opening stands in the subsequent games haven't even crossed 30, but that fact has been masked by solid second-wicket partnerships, and Smith has had an important role in that. Apart from the game against Royal Challengers Bangalore, when the second-wicket stand was worth zero runs because Kevin Pietersen had to retire hurt, the rest have all been over 40. Among them, six have been over fifty, four have been 80 or more, with three such involving Steven Smith. Smith, who batted down the order for the first few games, had an inconsistent start, but he made up for it as he grew from strength to strength with each passing game. The injury to Pietersen, which ruled him out of the IPL, meant that Smith had to take over the crucial No. 3 position, which was his place during Australia's World T20 campaign. While he did not do much at that position for Australia, knocks of 46 not-out, 101 and 45 - the last two coming at strike-rates of close to 200 - is a clear indicator that Smith relishes batting higher up the order. While the Australian has been going great guns in the last few games, and Rahane has been solid at the top of the order, RPS's inability to capitalise on the good starts has been one of their problems. A problem that has been now exacerbated by Steven Smith's injury and being ruled out of the IPL. Each time the Supergiants have batted first in the ongoing edition, they have ended up on the losing side, which is as many as five losses. The chief contributing factor for that has been their death overs batting as much as the shoddy performance of their bowlers. In the matches that they have batted first, the IPL newbies have scored 75 or more at the half-way stage in four games out of five, with three scores at the end of the 10th over being in excess of 80. But in three such matches, their batting in the death has not complemented the superb starts, which has meant that the Supergiants have ended up with totals that haven't met their expectations. Their average score in the last five overs while batting first is a touch below fifty, and they scored 60 apiece in the last five overs against Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Lions before their home match against Mumbai Indians. However, on the two occasions before those scores, RPS's scoring rate was just a touch above eight during the death