IPL 9, Match 49: Rising Pune Supergiants ease past DD in a rain afflicted encounter

Rising Pune Supergiants defeated Delhi Daredevils by 19 runs in an ill-fated encounter marred with rain interruptions. After being put into bat, DD managed just 121 off their quota of 20 overs, thanks to some excellent bowling from Adam Zampa and Ashok Dinda. Rahane got off to a brilliant start and looked to single-handedly drive RPS to a well-deserved victory, despite Usman Khawaja’s early dismissal and George Bailey’s uneasy stay at the crease. However, two successive rain interruptions sealed the fate towards the home team, in addition to severely denting Daredevils’ chances of qualifying for the play-offs.

Having faced the wrath of D/L in their previous match, in addition to slightly bowler friendly conditions put into place at the Vizag, Dhoni’s decision to bowl first did not come in as much of a surprise to anyone. With nothing to lose for RPS anymore, MS Dhoni gave a chance to Deepak Chahar and Irfan Pathan also maintained his place in the side. Zaheer Khan made a few more changes than the opponents by bringing in more pace in the form of Mohammad Shami and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Additionally, Shreyas Iyer, Mumbai’s Ranji hero, got a chance to prove his worth in what can be considered as a modest IPL season for him.

Considering this year’s history of Vizag being tricky for batsmen, the Delhi duo of Quinton de Kock and Iyer started off cautiously. However, with a hint of swing for the new ball bowlers, de Kock struggled to account for the late swing. Eventually, he fell to Ashok Dinda, who was mixing his variations well. In came Karun Nair, who’s resumed to tantalize his opponents with eye-grabbing cover drives. However, his partner Shreyas Iyer’s stay in the crease was cut short by an extremely well directed short ball by Dinda.

This successfully put breaks on DD, thus, any hopes of achieving a 160+ score was eliminated. Thisara Perera and Pathan came in once the ball had softened, which made boundaries, or in fact, even singles hard to come by. The duo tightened the screws with a stump to stump line, and the run-rate had dipped below 6 by the time the first strategic break was called on.

The innings got even worse from DD’s perspective once the spinners were brought in. There was quite a bit of assistance for the spinners, and the signs were ominous for the inexperienced DD batting lineup. Australian talent took no time to make an impact, as he removed Sanju Samson with a well-executed stumping. Ravichandran Ashwin kept things tight with his variations, and even rotating the strike became hard for the visitors.

Lack of experience started to show as DD batsmen were losing their nerves due to frustrating tactics from RPS. Eventually, Rishabh Pant and Karun Nair, both youngsters, perished trying to hit a biggie to break free. Zampa finished with excellent figures of 3/21, and the Australian selectors would be mighty pleased with his development.

The Daredevils needed one mighty finish to take the total anywhere near a competitive, but none came by. Despite the presence of authorized big hitters in the name of Chris Morris and JP Duminy, boundaries were still a rarity. The fact that just 9 boundaries were scored till the commencement of the 20th over underlines this fact, with Dinda being exceptional even at the death. However, MS Dhoni surprisingly chose Perera to bowl the final over, which he was made to regret later. The big man Morris got into his groove in the final over, wherein he alone scored 21 off 5. The 22 run over drove DD past 120, however, the target still looked way below par.

The match was half inside the bag for the RPS, who were desperate for a victory. However, with the looming dark clouds and considering the pitch being slightly difficult to score against, Pune batsmen had their task cut out. But that did not stop Rahane and Khawaja from playing their natural game. While the innings started off with a slight delay thanks to a dog interruption, both the openers started off on the right foot with a 12-run over off Coulter-Nile. Even the usually accurate Zaheer found it hard to get along, as the DD bowlers were bowling either to the batsmen’s legs or wide outside off stump and getting punished in both the cases.

Chris Morris’ introduction provided the breakthrough they desperately needed, as Khawaja drove one straight to the hands of Iyer. Zak backed it up with an excellent over, and the pressure was back on Rising Pune Supergiants now. However, with Rahane timing the ball perfectly, George Bailey started getting into his groove, with the exception of the one-off incident wherein he was hit on the helmet. RPS, riding on Rahane’s exquisite form, were cruising to victory when the first rain interruption signaled doom for the game. RPS were well ahead of DD as far as D/L score was concerned.

With the break blocking the play for just under an hour, the match started off with no reduction in overs. Rahane started off from where he left and continued to play well in a situation which had been reduced to “when” rather than “whether”. However, second spell of rain signaled the end of the match, and Supergiants, who were cruising towards their victory, were 19 runs ahead according to D/L calculations. To signal an end to the match, RPS won the match by 19 runs, in an ironic twist of fate considering RPS’ ill-fated encounter with KKR.

Brief Scores :

Delhi Daredevils: 121/6 in 20 overs (Nair 41, Morris 38*; Dinda 3/20)

Rising Pune Supergiants: 76/1 in 11 overs (Rahane 42*, Khawaja 19; Morris 1/12)

Man of the match: Ashok Dinda

How did Twitter react to the game? – Twitter Reactions: RPS play party poppers for DD in Vizag