Rising Pune Supergiants registered a comfortable 34-run win (Duckworth-Lewis method) over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a rain-shortened IPL-9 game at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Tuesday.
After Ashoke Dinda (three for 23) and Mitchell Marsh (two for 14) had restricted the hosts to 118 for eight, Pune reached 94 for three in 11 overs, thanks to Steve Smith’s unbeaten 46, when rain forced the players off the field. They never got back on.
Earlier, opener Shikhar Dhawan’s fighting, unbeaten half-century (56, 53b, 2x4, 1x6) and his partnership of 47 for the sixth wicket off 51 balls with Naman Ojha rescued Sunrisers, put in to bat. It would have been worse, if not for a breezy eight-ball 21 from Bhuvneshwar Kumar down the order.
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The host was off to a shocking start, with in-form opener and captain David Warner slashing the fourth ball of the innings to Ajinkya Rahane at backward point off Dinda. Soon, a hesitant Aditya Tare was caught at covers off the same bowler.
Then, the impressive Marsh bowled a beauty which moved away, forcing Eoin Morgan to nick to wicketkeeper M.S. Dhoni for a second-ball duck.
Complementing the pacemen’s efforts, off-spinner R. Ashwin struck with his first ball of the eighth over, an out-of-sorts Deepak Hooda top-edging a reverse-sweep for Dhoni to take a diving catch.
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For Sunrisers, the misery continued as Dhoni, diving yet again — to his left this time — latched on to Moises Henriques’s leg-glance off Marsh. It was 32 for five in 8.1 overs, with the contest all but settled.
A sharp drizzle had delayed the start of the game, and returned to end it.
Scoreboard
Sunrisers Hyderabad : David Warner c Rahane b Dinda 0 (4b), Shikhar Dhawan (not out) 56 (53b, 2x4, 1x6), Aditya Tare c Perera b Dinda 8 (14b, 1x4), Eoin Morgan c Dhoni b Marsh 0 (2b), Deepak Hooda c Dhoni b R. Ashwin 1 (9b), Moises Henriques c Dhoni b Marsh 1 (4b), Naman Ojha b Dinda 18 (21b, 1x6), Bipul Sharma run out 5 (5b), Bhuvneshwar Kumar c du Plessis b Perera 21 (8b, 3x4, 1x6), Ashish Nehra not out 0 (0b); Extras (lb-5, w-3): 8; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 118.
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Warner), 2-26 (Tare), 3-27 (Morgan), 4-29 (Hooda), 5-32 (Henriques), 6-79 (Ojha), 7-92 (Bipul), 8-115 (Bhuvneshwar).
Pune Supergiants bowling : Ashoke Dinda 4-1-23-3, Mitchell Marsh 4-0-14-2, Thisara Perera 4-0-32-1, R. Ashwin 4-0-14-1, Rajat Bhatia 3-0-24-0, M. Ashwin 1-0-6-0.
Rising Pune Supergiants: Ajinkya Rahane c Morgan b Bhuvneshwar 0 (5b), Faf du Plessis c Ojha b Henriques 30 (21b, 3x4, 2x6), Steve Smith (not out) 46 (36b, 7x4), M.S. Dhoni c Tare b Nehra 5 (4b, 1x4); Extras (lb-2, w-11): 13; Total (for three wkts. in 11 overs): 94.
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Rahane), 2-80 (du Plessis), 3-94 (Dhoni).
Sunrisers bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3-1-17-1, Nehra 3-0-21-1, Mustafizur Rahman 2-0-21-0, Bipul Sharma 1-0-17-0, Henriques 2-0-16-1.
Toss: Pune Supergiants.
Man-of-the-match: Dinda.
Pune Supergiants won by 34 runs (D-L method).