It is the first time Rising Pune Supergiant team playing the IPL finals and it is against the two-time champions Mumbai Indians. Though RPS team started the tournament with few losses, they bounced back with the help of Rahul Tripathi, MS Dhoni, Ben Stokes, Washington Sundar and Unadkat. Finally, they are in the finals facing Mumbai Indians.

The former RPS skipper MS Dhoni looked a bit inconsistent in the beginning of the tournament but managed to play few match winning knocks and played a key role in pushing his team to the finals of this year’s IPL. Despite all this, nothing stopped the Pune franchise owner Sanjeev Goenka from comparing two of the most important players in his team MS Dhoni and Steve Smith.

After all, Goenka’s brother Harsh’s Twitter posts created more stir than the man who would take off like a helicopter and till recently was Captain Cool. Goenka followed up on the comment about Dhoni’s cerebral faculties with one more in sync with a team that has won nine of its last 11 games and are in Sunday’s final of IPL 10 here.

In a recent interview, Goenka lauded Dhoni as one of the greatest minds but said Aussie skipper Steve Smith is even one step ahead. “MS is one of the greatest minds I have interacted with. And he is the best wicketkeeper in the world. The one mind ahead of Dhoni’s is Smith’s,” Goenka said.

He further said, referring to RPS captain Steve Smith. “My brief to Smith was: win the championship. It’s difficult to believe the way he has planned some dismissals, the tact, and firmness with which he has dealt with tricky situations and the win-or-nothing attitude he has been able to infuse into the team, get them to gel as a unit. And he’s gone out in the strategic timeouts to tell batsmen to either score 30 from the next 12 balls or get out. If we had a bad start, it was because Smith was out with food poisoning,” said Goenka.

“You need to win eight-nine games to make the playoffs and Smith told me that between him, (Imran) Tahir and (Ben) Stokes, we would win seven. And players of the caliber of MS will always give you something. We had more match winners this time, players who would need five-six balls to settle down instead of 20. And we hadn’t factored in Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, and Jaydev Unadkat. Tripathi and Sundar are going to be serious players on the Indian cricket scene,” he further added.

The journey from near bottom to finalists took some radical changes in approach. The Supergiant, which incurred a disastrous season in 2016, had to change a lot in their approach which resulted in the team reaching the final this term. “The first season was a disaster and I wanted it to end soonest, with our dignity intact,” said Goenka.

RPS have changed its 11 players from the last season. “The team got younger, fitter and more energetic. So, we have fielded better. This time, with whom players’ loyalties lay didn’t matter.” Goenka said it took him one year to learn how to control the ‘fragile egos’ of his players. “We didn’t want to be like a franchise that doesn’t invest its Rs 66 crore purse and is happy finishing fifth, but last year I didn’t know better. Also, with the World T20 around, we didn’t have time.”

The RPS and football franchise Atletico de Kolkata owner said he is feeling somewhat ‘paternalistic’ towards players such as Smith, Tripathi, and Unadkat, among others. Rising Pune Supergiant will lock horns with Mumbai Indians on May 21, hoping to get their hands on the title before being dissolved ahead of the 2018 season.