The overall bowling effort pleased me the most: MS Dhoni

Rising Pune Supergiants defeated the strong looking Delhi Daredevils in their home ground to keep themselves alive in the tournament. A loss today for the RSP side would have meant that they would be virtually kicked out of the tournament. Chasing 163 runs to win, the RSP side cruised past the target with ease riding on the shoulders of Ajinkya Rahane’s and brisk innings from Usman Khawaja, Saurabh Tiwary and MS Dhoni. The DD was put into bat first after winning MS Dhoni won the toss. They began well but were restricted to just 162/after the RPS bowlers with the support of some brilliant fielding contained the DD batsmen.

Ajinkya Rahane was adjudged as the ‘Man of the Match’ for his match-winning knock. Rahane Said: “Really happy the way I batted today. We decided one batsman, who gets set will carry the innings through. I’m just looking to keep it really simple. If I stay till 6 overs, I try to keep the score ticking and that’s my strength. I don’t try too many things and if I stick to my strength I’m sure I’ll be able to do well in the future games as well,” warbles the Man of the Match recipient Jinks Rahane

Winning captain MS Dhoni said: “The overall bowling effort pleased me the most. It felt nice we restricted them to 160. With a ground like this and with the way they are going, I think we did really well. There were quite a few hits from the batsmen but I think the death bowling was good. We are a bit uncomfortable in the middle, but I think it’s a well-earned victory for us. The wicket did slow a bit in the second innings. Mishra did well and Imran Tahir also bowled really well. This victory was much-needed for us. Even if the batsmen are hitting hard, you have to stick to your plans and I think that’s what makes the difference.”

Stand-in skipper Jean Paul Duminy said: “We did feel it was enough at the half time. The middle part of our batting let us down, we were 20 runs short, but we did pretty well to take it to the last over. The way we fought back was exceptional. They (Zaheer, Quinton de Kock and Morris) carry a lot of experience, but as I said at the toss it is an opportunity for the guys to stake a claim in the IPL. There were some errors and missed opportunities, but lot of positives. We spoke about Shami bowling in the death, so we needed to go with him. We went in with only two seamers, so we had to use our leg-spinners wisely. So, we kept Imran (Tahir) for the final overs, an exceptional spell from him. We have played some good cricket this season and there are six more games before the playoffs, hopefully, we can pick it up in the next game.”

Also, Read  – IPL 9, Match 33 Review: Pune end their drought with a win over DD