Ajinkya Rahane steered Rising Pune Supergiants home with an unbeaten half-century as the visitors outclassed Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets to keep their hopes alive, in the Indian Premier League in Delhi, on Thursday.
Rahane stroked 63 from 48 balls as Pune cruised to 166 for three in 19.1 overs in reply to Delhi's 162 for seven to win with five deliveries.
This was Pune's third win in nine matches as they stay a lowly sixth, while Delhi maintain their third position in the standings despite suffering their third loss in eight games.
Delhi, who missed regular captain Zaheer Khan because of injury, had stand-in skipper J P Duminy top scoring with 34 as none of their batsmen carried on after getting off to starts. Scott Boland and Rajat Bhatia claimed two wickets each to stifle the Delhi batsmen in the middle overs.
Rahane and his new opening partner Usman Khawaja (30) started positively for Pune. Khawaja was lucky to survive two run-out chances with Mohammed Shami missing the stumps from close range, while wicketkeeper Sanju Samson failing to collect the ball cleanly.
The openers shared a fluent stand 59 runs for the opening wicket.
Amit Mishra provided the first break-through for DD, when Khawaja was stumped by Samson.
Rahane joined hands with Saurabh Tiwary to take Pune past the 100-run mark before the latter became leg-spinner Imran Tahir’s first victim after he had scored 21 off 18 balls.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni played a sedate innings of 27 from 20 balls despite the asking rate creeping up in the final few overs. The right-hander, who is yet to hit a fifty in the tournament, failed to finish off the match as he fell to a sensational catch by Sam Billings at deep midwicket close to the boundary.
Tahir kept Delhi in the hunt as he claimed two wickets for only 26 runs off his four overs.
With 37 needed from three overs, Dhoni hit Mohammed Shami for a six and a four to get 20 runs from the 18th over in what proved to a decisive over under the circumstances.
Dhoni was dismissed in the next over but Thisara Perera avoided any late dramas as he slammed Tahir for two sixes in the 19th over.
Deseverdly, Rahane ended the match with a boundary as Pune registered a morale-boosting victory to keep their hopes alive.
Rajat Bhatia and Scott Boland claimed two wickets each as Rising Pune Supergiants put in a impressive performance with the ball to restrict the in-form Delhi Daredevils to 162 for seven.
After being put into bat, Delhi's batsmen got off to starts but none of them managed to convert them.
Skipper JP Duminy, who led the side in place of the injured Zaheer Khan, was the top-scorer for the side with his 34-run knock, which came off 32 balls with just one shot to the fence.
Sanju Samson (20), Karun Nair (32) and Sam Billings (24) were all guilty of throwing away their wickets after getting starts.
Pune's bowlers stifled the Delhi innings with excellent bowling from medium pacer Rajat Bhatia and Ravichandran Ashwin in the middle overs and had it not been for some powerful hits by Carlos Barthwaite, who smashed a quickfire 20 from eight balls, the hosts would have struggled to reach the total which they eventually did.
Pawan Negi contributed unbeaten 19 off 12, getting 13 runs of last over bowled by paceman Ashoke Dinda, who took one for 34.
Dinda was consistent in hitting the right areas from the start and bowled at a decent pace to contain the home team openers. He bowled five dot balls to young Rishabh Pant (2) and the pressure got the better of the young batsman, who missed the line trying to whack one out and was bowled in the paceman's second over.
Karun Nair made a confident start with a boundary off Scott Boland, adding to the two boundaries hit by his partner Sanju Samson off Thisara Perera.
Dinda, who was very impressive in his first two overs, conceded two boundaries in his third over to Nair, who drove the first ball to cover region and then relished a waist height full toss which he dispatched to the fine leg boundary.
Delhi were going at a decent pace before Samson suffered a soft dismissal, ending his 35-run partnership with Nair, when he chipped one straight to Ravi Ashwin at mid-wicket, in the sixth over.
Ashwin and Bhatia built up the pressure with some tight bowling before the latter got rid off Nair (32) in the 10th over.
England batsman Sam Billing brought the crowd to its feet when he smashed Ravi Ashwin for back to back sixes in the 13th over.
However, Bhatia returned for a new spell and claimed the wicket of Billings, who attempted a switch hit but found the fielder near boundary ropes. Bhatia finished with excellent figures of
4-0-22-2.
Brathwaite batted with his usual flair as he launched Murugan Ashwin for two sixes. The first was a monstrous 100m hit. The West Indian then hammered a flat straight six off Boland in the next over but failed to connect a slow bouncer and was holed out to Perera at square leg.
