Mahendra Singh Dhoni roared back to form with a smashing half-century to power RIsing Pune Supergiant to a six-wicket victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Pune, on Saturday.
Scorecard
With two needed from the final ball for victory, Dhoni hit pacer Siddharth Kaul for a boundary through the covers to take his team to victory in grand style. The wicketkeeper-batsman ended his run of poor scores in IPL 10 as he finished unbeaten on a splendid innings of 61 from 34 balls, having hit five fours and three sixes.
Manoj Tiwary played a good hand at the end as he made 17 not out from eight balls.
Rahul Tripathi had ralled Pune after the early dismissal of Ajinkya Rahane (2) as he hit a quickfire 59 from 41 balls, putting on 72 runs for the second wicket with Steve Smith, who made 27.
Rashid Khan checked Pune's progress after a fiery start with the wicket of Smith in the 11th over before he ran out Tripathi with a direct hit.
Dhoni struggled to get going early on his innings before he cut loose at the end, hitting 26 runs from seven balls at one stage to race to his half-century from 20 balls.
This was the third win for Pune from six matches as they climbed to fourth in the standings with six points, behind Sunrisers, who have eight points from seven games.
When Dhoni came out at number four at the fall of Smith's wicket in the final delivery of the 11th over at 87 for two, Pune needed 10 runs an over to win the match.
However, the situation worsened after Tripathi was run out by Rashid.
Ben Stokes (10), this IPL season's costliest buy, once again failed to contribute, falling in the 17th over and by that time the asking rate had shot up to above 14 an over.
Dhoni, who seemed to be struggling at the start of his innings, swung into action as he hit two fours and a six to take 17 runs from the 18th over bowled by Mohammed Siraj.
Once he got his eye in there was no stopping Dhoni, who did not spare death overs specialist Bhuvneshwar Kumar, smashing him for 19 runs from the penultimate over with the help of two fours and a six, bring the equation down to 11 runs needed from the final over.
Manoj Tiwary (17 not out) was dropped off the first ball of the final over by Rashid at deep midwicket as he also gave away a boundary. Tiwary and Dhoni could score only in singles off the next three deliveries before taking a couple of runs off the fifth ball and Dhoni ended it in grand style as he hit Kaul for a four off the final delivery to seal the issue.
Earlier, Moises Henriques came up with a late assault to enable Sunrisers Hyderabad post a competitive 176 for three.
Sunrisers Hyderabad were struggling at 122 for three in the 16th over before Henriques (55 not out) increased the tempo to steal 54 runs in the last four overs, in the able company of Deepak Hooda (19 not out off 10 balls).
Off to a decent start after being put in to bat, skipper David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan put on a 55-run stand for the opening wicket before Hyderabad bowlers led by Daniel Christian (1/20) and Imran Tahir (1/23) put brakes on the scoring in the middle overs.
Tahir was the one, who gave Hyderabad their first breakthrough by seeing off Dhawan for a 29-ball 30.
Kane Williamson tried to accelerate the run-rate during his 21 off 14 balls that included a six and a four, before he was trapped leg-before wicket by Christian.
Even though Warner held on to his wicket and played a responsible knock, he failed to up the ante.
Eventually he was bowled out by Jaydev Unadkat for 43 off 40 deliveries, studded with three boundaries and a six.
After Warner's departure, Henriques launched a furious assault in the final few overs, hitting two sixes and six boundaries to guide the team to a 175-plus total. He remained unbeaten on 55 off just 28 deliveries.