Rising Pune Supergiants’ Ajinkya Rahane en route to his unbeaten 63 in their IPL-9 match against Delhi Daredevils at the Kotla in New Delhi on Thursday. (Photo: BCCI)
Rising Pune Supergiants displayed smart cricket to notch up a crucial seven-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils in their Indian Premier League-9 match here on Thursday night.
After their bowlers restricted Delhi to 162/7 on a pitch that looked conducive for batting, the visitors came up with an immaculate plan and stuck to it for most parts to take home a vital win with five balls to spare, to provide some stability to their floundering campaign.
Openers Ajinkya Rahane (63 not out, 48 balls) and Usman Khawaja (30, 27 balls) provided a sedate start notching up 59 runs in 8.2 overs before Amit Mishra (1/28) induced the breakthrough.
Five hours prior to the match, Khawaja — roped in at the last minute after Pune were hit by a string of injuries — had joked about “returning home” since the Pune had “provided him with a jersey with an incorrect name (it read Khwaja)”.
The Australian left-hand batsman saw the lighter side of it saying Pune were perhaps expecting someone else, but he was exactly what was needed to calm Pune’s nerves, who last saw an opening stand cross the 50-run mark seven matches earlier.
The platform was set and with nine wickets intact at the half way mark as Pune reached 74/1 in 10 overs, they just needed to go about their job in a calculated manner.
Rahane made a fluent half century laced with clever singles and some big hits, while Dhoni (27, 20 balls) came to the party too.
Needing 37 off 18 balls, Dhoni played the only way he knows. He took the attack route and ran singles effortlessly as Rahane provided the support. Mohammed Shami’s third over — the 18th of the innings — brought in 20 runs and with just 17 needed of the last two, Delhi knew it was very hard with Dhoni at the crease.
The skipper though fell to Imran Tahir (2/26) at a crucial juncture but Thisara Perera (14 not out off 5 balls) and Rahane made sure the job was well done. Perera slammed Tahir for two sixes in the penultimate over as Pune romped home in 19.1 overs.
Earlier, a late surge from skipper Duminy (34, 32 balls) and cameos from Sam Billings (24 off 15 balls) and Carlos Brathwaite (20 off eight) took Delhi to 162/7.
Scoreboard Delhi Daredevils: R. Pant b Dinda 2, S. Samson c R Ashwin b Boland 20, K. Nair c Perera b Bhatia 32, J.P. Duminy (run out) 34, S. Billings c Rahane b Bhatia 24, C. Brathwaite c Perera b Boland 20, P. Negi (not out) 19, J. Yadav (run out) 1, M. Shami (not out) 2. Extras: (lb1, w6, nb1) 8. Total: (for 7 wkts, in 20 overs) 162. FoW: 1-13, 2-48, 3-65, 4-110, 5-137, 6-138, 7-143. Bowling: Dinda 4-0-34-1 (1nb, 1w), Perera 1-0-9-0, Boland 4-0-31-2, R. Ashwin 4-0-34-0 (3w), Bhatia 4-0-22-2 (2w), M. Ashwin 3-0-31-0
Rising Pune Supergiants: A. Rahane (not out) 63, U. Khawaja st Samson b Mishra 30, S. Tiwary c Billings b Imran Tahir 21, M.S. Dhoni c Billings b Imran Tahir 27, N. Perera (not out) 14. Extras: (lb1, w7, nb3) 11. Total (for 3 wkts, in 19.1 overs) 166 FoW: 1-59, 2-104, 3-146 Bowling: Yadav 4-0-25-0, Brathwaite 2-0-17-0, Mohammed Shami 3.1-0-50-0 (1nb, 1w), Mishra 4-0-28-1 (2nb, 1w), Duminy 1-0-9-0, Imran Tahir 4-0-26-2 (1w), Negi 1-0-10-0
