Internet Desk: Rising Pune Supergiants posted their third win of VIVO IPL 2016 after they defeated the Delhi Daredevils by 7 runs on Thursday evening. After opting to field first and restricting hosts Delhi Daredevils to 162-7, Rising Pune Supergiants, riding on the back of a calm half-century from Ajinkya Rahane, got past the target in the final over.
In pursuit of 163, Rising Pune Supergiants got off to a steady start with their new opening pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Usman Khawaja helping the team reach 50 after six overs – this despite neither batsmen playing any flashy strokes. Khawaja (30 from 27 balls) was handed a reprieve in the seventh over when Sanju Samson missed a stumping opportunity. But the Australian couldn’t capitalize on that as he was stumped few deliveries later. RPS were 59-0 after 8.2 overs.
Saurabh Tiwary, who dropped down to number three, and Rahane then kept the required run-rate in check with a brisk 45-run partnership. Both batsmen ran plenty of singles in the 2nd wicket partnership that lasted five overs. At this stage, it appeared the visitors would get home quite comfortably.
But the combination of Imran Tahir and Sam Billings sent a scare to the visitors dressing room. Soon after the batting side’s time out, Tiwary holed out to the fielder patrolling the midwicket boundary. MS Dhoni too fell victim to the South African leg-spinner, but not before he had plundered two sixes and a boundary in his 20-ball 27. Much of the credit for both those dismissals should go to Billings, who pulled out two outstanding catches in the outfield – one diving forward at midwicket and the other moving to his right, leaping in the air at the right time, and ensuring he remained within the field of play when he landed.
Rahane, who held his end and scored his fifth half-century of the season, and Thisara Perera – who slammed two sixes in three balls, finished the job. Rahane hit the winning runs – clipping away a leg-stump delivery from Mohammed Shami to the boundary; he remained unbeaten on 63 from 48 balls (7 fours). RPS got past the finish line with five balls to spare.
Earlier in the evening, after being given the opportunity to set a target, the Delhi Daredevils never really got into a fifth-gear mode. Several batsmen got off to starts but failed to convert it to anything substantial. After Rishabh Pant was dismissed in the third over, Sanju Samson and Karun Nair put the innings back on track with a 35-run partnership. Karun was the more fluent of the two batsmen, picking up a few boundaries early on and impressed with his shot selection and timing.
All this while, Samson (20 from 17 balls) at the other end, kept accumulating runs, before he miscued a delivery that stopped on him, to be caught at midwicket. Delhi Daredevils were 48 for 2 after six overs.
The RPS captain MS Dhoni used this opening to control the flow of runs. R Ashwin, Rajat Bhatia and M Ashwin did not concede a boundary for a period of 6.3 overs. Sam Billings, who walked in after the dismissal of Karun Nair (32 from 23 balls), hit R Ashwin for sixes of consecutive deliveries in the first show of intent. Two overs later, when he used the switch hit against Bhatia, he picked the man at wide long off; Billings made 24 from 15 balls, aided with a boundary and two sixes.
After adding only 11 runs off the 18th & 19th, Pawan Negi (19 from 12 balls) scored 13 runs off the final over. DD, who scored 64 runs in the middle period of play added 50 in the final five to finish at 162-7.