Rising Pune Supergiant skipper Steve Smith hailed England allrounder Ben Stokes after his side sealed a thrilling three-run IPL win over the in-form Mumbai Indians.
Stokes was named man of the match after grabbing 2-21, including a wicket maiden, as his side defended a target of 161 to snap Mumbai's six-game winning streak.
Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field but the visitors got off to a strong start with Ajinka Rahane (38) and Rahul Tripathi (45) putting on 76 for the first wicket.
However, Smith (17), MS Dhoni (7) and Stokes (17) were unable to build on the good foundations laid by the openers.
Smith was dropped by Harbhajan Singh on eight but the offspinner returned in the next over to clean bowl the Australia captain.
Manoj Tiwary clubbed 22 runs off 13 balls to help Pune to 6-160 - a target that looked no better than par - against the best chasing side in the competition.
Stokes pounced for the first wicket in the fifth over, dismissing England teammate Jos Buttler for 17 with a well-disguised slower ball and his maiden halted the momentum of the hosts at 1-35.
Australia's Dan Christian had Nitish Rana caught at third man by Jaydev Unadkat with Washington Sandar snaring Partiv Patel for 30 to reduce Mumbai to 3-60.
Stokes grabbed his second wicket by shattering the stumps of Karn Sharma (7) with Smith then taking a fine catch to dismiss Kieron Pollard off Imran Tahir for nine, leaving Mumbai at 5-122.
Skipper Sharma (58) kept the scoreboard moving, but an excellent penultimate over from Stokes yielded just seven runs, with Mumbai requiring 17 from the last six balls.
Undaekat struck with the first delivery as Hardik Pandya found the diving Stokes at deep extra cover, only for Sharma to smash the seamer for six from the next ball.
But Undaekat got his revenge, taking a smart return catch off his own bowling to dismiss Sharma, and then combined again with the dynamic Stokes to run out Mitchell McClegnahan and seal the win.
"Stokesy in the second half was excellent," said Smith.
"He and Unadkat got us over the line."
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