Rising Pune Supergiant captain Steve Smith on Sunday said the team will miss Ben Stokes in the IPl play-offs after they comfortably beat Kings XI Punjab in a do-or-die match here.
In a potential knock-out clash, Pune defeated Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets to finish second in the points table behind Mumbai Indians, which means they will get two shots for a place in the summit clash.
It was complete domination by the home team, which first skittled out Kings XI Punjab for a paltry 73 and then knocked off the runs in only 12 overs.
"It was a nice day. The bowlers did a terrific job," said Smith.
"We were searching a bit in the first few games. We had new players coming in, we have a good balance now. Really good to finish second and have bites at the cherry. Yeah, we have a couple of options for Stokes. He has been magnificent and will be a big loss. Hopefully, the other guys will stand up for us," he added.
Stokes, the costliest player of IPl who will leave for national duty after Sunday's match, scored 316 runs from 12 games with 103 not out being his highest. With the ball the English all-rounder picked up 12 wickets from as many games.
Smith said toss played a crucial in deciding the outcome of the match.
"We were fortunate to win the toss, the ball was stopping. It was an easy decision today, the wicket was sticky. Shardul (Thakur) was outstanding, (Jaydev) Unadkat again was outstanding," he said.
Meanwhile, Kings XI Punjab skipper Glenn Maxwell said despite failing to qualify for the play-offs there were a lot of positives to take from this edition of the IPl.