HYDERABAD: It was all new for Dhoni and his fans to watch his team remain at the bottom of the IPL points table losing four out of the five matches they have played. At last, the prayers of the Rising Pune Supergiant’s fans have been answered. Pune has eventually come out of its losing streak after winning the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad comfortably by 34 runs (DLS method).
Having won the toss Mahendra Singh Dhoni asked the hosts, Hyderabad, to bat first in a rain affected match which mandated the match start late by an hour. Experts were true with their perceptions that toss would play a key role in deciding the winning team as it would much easier for the chasing team when compared to the one batting first when there are forecasts of rains in between the match.
Nothing went in favor of the hosts, including the toss. They were welcomed with the skipper David Warner being sent to the pavilion for a duck. This could be termed as the match turning point, as Warner was one of those on whom SRH is dependent to post a decent score.
Wickets fell in quick succession for SRH and they were reduced to 55/5 at one stage. Thanks to opener Shikhar Dhawan who had returned to his sublime touch after a struggling period. He was the only batsman for Sunrisers to remain till the end of the SRH innings. With the help of Bhuvaneswar Kumar’s (21) short cameo and Shikhar Dhawan’s 56 runs SRH have managed to post a decent score of 118, losing eight wickets. However, it had been proved as a below par score at the end.
Dinda was exceptional for Pune supergiants as the rejuvenated bowler returned with the figures of 3/23 in 4 overs. He was followed by Mitchell Marsh’s economical spell of 2/14.
In their chase, Pune supergiants have made no mistake and were 94/3 in 11 overs when the rain interrupted the game. Eventually, the match was decided in favor of the RPS using Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
