Rising Pune Supergiant 179 for 4 (Dhoni 61*, Tripathi 59, Rashid 1-17) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 176 for 3 (Henriques 55*, Christian 1-20) by 6 wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
MS Dhoni was at his devastating best © BCCI
The finisher is not finished yet. MS Dhoni struck a 34-ball 61 to help clean up some of the mess he himself created as Rising Pune Supergiant chased down 177 with a last-ball boundary. Dhoni’s slow start of 26 off 23 balls had converted an equation of 90 off 55 into 47 required off the last three, but Dhoni took out the best bowler of the tournament, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, in an almighty assault of 35 runs in 11 balls to seal the win.
Before Saturday, in the 12 matches that Sunrisers Hyderabad had posted 175 or more, they had lost only two. On Saturday, though, they just about huffed and puffed there, and on a flat pitch and without the services of Ashish Nehra and Mustafizur Rahman, they couldn’t do enough to defend. Their fielding didn’t help, with dropped chances of half-centurion Rahul Tripathi on 17 and that of Manoj Tiwary in a tense final over. That Sunrisers had something to bowl at was thanks to Moises Hneriques’ 28-ball 55, but Sunrisers lost as much because of their fielding as the batting before Henriques.
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Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo