- Thisara Perera scored a quickfire 34 off 13 balls to bring Rising Pune Supergiants closer than they will have thought to Royal Challengers Bangalore's target of 186.
- MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have captained sides that have shown promise in the first game, but gone on to lose their next two. Who will prevail in Pune on Friday?
Perera's hard-hitting cameo and Kohli's batting discomfort wasn't enough to help Pune overcome de Villiers' brilliance, Pune's loss of three quick wickets and a slow middle period.
Here how the IPL match between Rising Pune Supergiants and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Pune went down on Friday...
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Rising Pune Supergiants captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni starts
speaking in an oddly defensive manner, mentioning the three unnecessary
and unfortunate dismissals of Pune's top-order batsmen. Not like him to
ever make excuses. KP's injury might work in Pune's favour — they can
now look to bring in a bowling all-rounder without having to willingly
drop a batsman of KP's calibre.
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli looks more
relieved than Tyrion Lannister claims he was after Joffrey Baratheon's
death (pardon the tiny GoT reference). Says they played good cricket,
and just needed to show composure in key moments. Admits he didn't bat
as well as he'd have liked, praised Shane Watson, AB de Villiers and
Tabraiz Shamsi, the man who got off a plane and bowled like a
match-winner.
Man of the Match AB de Villiers says he got away with a couple of
boundaries, mishits that went for six (those exist?!) but he is pleased
with his performance.
Phew. That was a nice few last overs. Heart-rate up. Required Run-rate down. Hopes up. Crashed down.
After Royal Challengers Bangalore set up a target of 186, Rising Pune
Supergiants got off to an inauspicious start — Faf du Plessis lost his
wicket early to an ungainly shot, then Kevin Pietersen's calf muscle had
a twist worse than a bad Tollywood 90s flick, and a couple balls later
Steve Smith found himself sprawled in front of the batting crease with
the bails off. Then Ajinkya Rahane and captain MS Dhoni carried on like
Test batsmen — at times looking like they were trying to avoid a draw,
at other times, hacking at the ball like a drunk lumberjack — before one
Harshal Patel over sent both of them back to the dugout. Thisara Perera
and Rajat Bhatia came into their own in the pressure situation and
brought the RRR down from 17 per over to 12.50, with 25 to get off 2
overs. Perera especially (34 from 13 balls) swung some lusty blows
befitting a real-life super giant. But Shane Watson's golden arm had an
over left. Perera fell in a two-wicket over that ratcheted the RRR back
to 21. And finally, Kane Richardson bowled the last over for 7 runs and 2
wickets, to put paid to the Supergiant rebellion.
RCB 185/3 (20.0 Ovs)
RPS 172/8 (20.0 Ovs)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 13 runs
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