Sunday 15 / December / 2024
Hyderabad: Pune Supergiants beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 34 runs via Duckworth/Lewis method in a rain-hit IPL encounter, here on Tuesday to end their losing streak of four successive matches.
Courtesy Ashok Dinda's three for 32, Supergiants restricted Sunrisers to 118/8 in 20 overs. Chasing a paltry target, Supergiants were cruising along at 94 for 3 in 11 overs when a steady downpour forced the proceedings to be called off.
At that time, D/L par score was 60 and the Supergiants were comfortably home.
Exploiting favourable conditions, Rising Pune Supergiants restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to a modest 118 for eight, earning a brilliant opportunity to bring their floundering IPL campaign back on track in a rain-hit match.
Supergiants revelled under the conditions with pace duo of Ashok Dinda (3/23) and Mitchell Marsh (2/14) rattling the Hyderabad top-order.
The rain forced a one-hour delay and sluggish conditions made the decision to bowl first more suitable.
The hosts owed their total to opener Shikhar Dhawan, who struck a fighting unbeaten 56 that had two fours and a six.
Dinda extracted some good bounce from the track and scalped David Warner (0) and Aditya Tare (8) early in the innings. Warner slashed widish delivery straight to Ajinkya Rahane while Tare's miscued pull was taken by Thisara Perera.
Marsh too was impressive from the other end, getting rid of dangerous Eoin Morgan (0).
Dhawan was holding the fort tightly but kept losing partners from the other end. Marsh completed his quota of overs with another wicket, by dismissing Moises Henriques.
In between, Ravichandran Ashwin sent back Deepak Hooda with his first ball of the spell.
The stage was now set for Supergiants to push for a win which it needed badly. The hosts were gasping at 32 for five with Dhawan and Naman Ojha having a great task at hand to repair the innings.
The two played sensibly, focusing more on ones and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking. They waited for the odd bad ball for big shots.
One such shot came in the 15th over when Ojha lofted Rajat Bhatia for a maximum in the cow corner. Ojha and Dhawan added 47 runs, much needed to lend some respectability to the total, for the sixth wicket.
Dhoni brought back Dinda and he responded by castling Ojha, who made 18 off 21 balls.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar played a very useful cameo of 21 runs from just eight balls and that was crucial in taking the hosts past three-figure mark.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 118 for 8 (Dhawan 56 n.o.; Dinda 3/23) lost to Rising Pune Supergiants 94 for 3 (Smith 46 n.o.; du Plessis 30) on D/L method.
