Rising Pune Supergiants have been marred by four major injuries within the last fortnight and were reeling at rock bottom half the points table with six losses from eight matches. But against Old Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz sovereign Kotla, they fell back on the reliable shoulders of Ajinkya Rahane, Rajat Bhatia and a brisk innings from IPL debutant Usman Khawaja to hand the hosts their second loss in their last four matches.
Supergiants first restricted Daredevils to 162 by speed them down in the middle overs and taking regular wickets. And the top order, led by Rahane's undefeated and unruffled sixty three, made positive the chase, which got slightly tense towards the finish, was sealed with five balls to spare.
This looked like anyone's game when Supergiants required thirty seven from the last 3 overs. Captain MS Dhoni, who promoted himself to No. 4, struck a four and a straight six off Mohammed Shami, soon once 5 wides earlier in the eighteenth over, to bring the equation down to 17 from twelve. Iman Tahir removed MS Dhoni with the first ball of the nineteenth over however 2 lusty sixes from Thisara Perera meant Supergiants required 3 from the last over and Rahane finished it with a flicked four.
Khawaja and Rahane hit the pedal in the chase after the third over by principally targeting the quicks. They saw through Jayant Yadav's four overs of offspin and reached 50 once the Powerplay over. Amit Mishra's economy and googly then combined to stump Khawaja, who had already been born on eight and had survived a run-out likelihood on nine, for 30.
Rahane continued in his usual unhazardous and unruffled fashion and he was hardly troubled in the second-wicket stand with Saurabh Tiwary by JP Duminy and Sanchez Brathwaite. But Tahir had Tiwary caught in the ordinal over and Supergiants were still fifty seven adrift with six overs to travel, when Dhoni came out at No. 4.
He smashed his fourth ball for a six and after thirteen singles off the next sixteen balls, Supergiants needed thirty seven from eighteen. Duminy gave the ball to Shami who sent 5 wides method down the leg facet on the second ball of the over and once Dhoni took strike, he tilted the momentum back with consecutive boundaries to build it easier for Rahane.
Daredevils, who were asked to bat, were largely anchored by their backup captain Duminy, as Zaheer Khan had a niggle, but different batsmen might not convert starts into massive scores. Once Dinda knocked over Rishabh Pant's off stump in the third over, Karun Nair and Sanju Samson started scoring boundaries on each sides of the pitch to charge the run rate on top of eight. But Samson two-handed a straightforward catch to midwicket on the last ball of the Powerplay.
Duminy, meanwhile, kept the score ticking by rating at nearly run a ball however was running out of partners. Bhatia took the pace of the ball for another economical spell and Nair soon holed dead set sweeper cowl, for 32 off twenty three, while making an attempt to break the shackles.
Sam Billings partnered Duminy to quickly score twenty four runs out of the {45|forty 5} they place along in five overs. Billings had struck R Ashwin for 2 consecutive sixes and was motion a giant threat before a bat over his innings. Brathwaite then took on the other Ashwin {for 2|for 2} a lot of sixes however spectacular fielding from Rahane and Tiwary resulted in two run-outs and a few late blows from Pawan Negi provided Daredevils a late push however it wasn't enough.
