Rising Pune Supergiant 161 for 8 (Tripathi 31, Rahane 30, Milne 2-27, Aravind 2-29) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 134 for 9 (De Villiers 29, Stokes 3-18, Thakur 3-35) by 27 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Shardul Thakur returned career-best T20 figures of 3 for 35 © BCCI
Rising Pune Supergiant’s middle-order froze on sluggish Chinnaswamy surface, losing 5 for 3, but their bowlers inflicted a bigger freeze on Royal Challengers Bangalore to defend 161. The pitch, seemingly, became slower in the second innings, and each of Rising Pune’s bowlers varied the pace intelligently to drag the team from the bottom of the points table. Ben Stokes and Shardul Thakur played starring roles, taking career-best T20 figures of 3 for 18 and 3 for 35 respectively. This was Rising Pune’s first win after batting first in 10 IPL matches.
They had started strongly as well with openers Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi adding 50 in five overs. Steven Smith, the captain, and his predecessor MS Dhoni put on a fifty stand as well, but it came at a price: they faced 49 balls between them and ended up soaking 22 dots. From 127 for 2, Rising Pune unravelled to 130 for 7, but a sparkling cameo from Manoj Tiwary – 27 off 11 balls – dragged the team to a total, which provided 27 too many for RCB.
Help yourself
The ball came onto the bat nicely in the early exchanges, and Rising Pune sprinted to 50 in five overs. Tripathi regularly hit over the top, while Rahane used the pace and worked the ball square or behind square. For the first time this season Rising Pune did not lose a wicket in the first six overs.
Dhoni, Smith don’t help themselves
Then they lost Rahane and Tripathi in successive overs to Samuel Badree and Pawan Negi. Then Dhoni , who was promoted to No. 4, and Smith dropped into a shell. There would be no way out for them.
Dhoni struggled to time the ball with a six that landed on the roof off Yuzvendra Chahal being an aberration. Smith played a similar innings: he could neither turn the strike nor hit out. The rickety 58-run stand ended Dhoni attempted an ungainly slog across the line and dragged Shane Watson, who had replaced Chris Gayle, back onto the stumps. At 87.14, Dhoni now has the slowest strike rate for batsmen who have faced a minimum of 70 balls this IPL.
Smith also lost his shape while slogging, and a collapse ensued. Adam Milne, playing his first T20 in a year, prospered and was on a hat-trick during this phase.
Tiwary cleans up the mess
That Rising Pune mustered 161 was largely down to Tiwary’s late blows. He hit six boundaries in the last two overs, and his strike rate of 245.45 was his highest, when he has faced a minimum of 10 balls in the IPL.
Pune rise again
Shardul Thakur struck in his over, having Mandeep Singh caught behind for a duck. He found Virat Kohli’s edge in the same over as well, but Tiwary shelled a regulation catch at slip. Kohli was on 7 at that point. He added 21 before Ben Stokes bounced him out. Christian also contributed to the chokehold, so much so that de Villiers managed only six out of 15 balls against him and Stokes. Tahir then made the incision when he had de Villiers stumped for 29 off 30 balls with a dipping legbreak.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo