Dhoni’s knock does it for Rising Pune

Dhoni smashes an unbeaten 61 to finally come good as he helps Pune overcome defending champions Sunrisers by six wickets.

sixes. This was the third win for Pune from six matches and they now have six points.

Hyderabad, on the other hand, have eight points from seven matches, after four wins and three losses. Opener Rahul Tripathi had kept Pune in the hunt with a 41-ball 59 before he was out in the 14th over. Captain Steve Smith contributed with a 21-ball 27 but he got out early in the 11th over.

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 2, Pune needed 10 runs an over to win the match. However, the situation worsened after Tripathi was out. 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 as he could not connect his bat with the ball for some time, then swung into action as he hit two fours and a six to take 17 runs from the 18th over bowled by Mohammed Siraj

Earlier, a late surge from allrounder Moises Henriques helped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) post a healthy 176/3

Pune faltered in the death overs, leaking 63 runs in the last five overs with Henriques (55 not out from 28 balls) and Deepak Hooda (19 not out from 10) taking the bowlers to the cleaners.

Put into bat, Sunrisers had a slowish start with skipper David Warner and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (30) putting on 55 runs before South African legspinner Imran Tahir gave Pune the first breakthrough in the form of Dhawan.

The Pune bowlers started with a tight line and length and did not allow any freebies to the two lefthanded openers.

Dhawan started his innings with a boundary off left-arm pac- er Jaydev Unadkat and went on to smack four more before mistiming Tahir›s first ball of the match and was smartly caught by Rahul Tripathi at deep midwicket.

Dhawan›s departure brought in the in-form New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson (21 from 14 balls), who added 29 for the second wicket with Warner before medium pacer Daniel Christian›s off-cutter caught him plumb in front.

Warner, at the other end, survived a chance when his Australian skipper Steve Smith put down an absolute sitter at mid-off off Ben Stokes.

But the joy was short-lived as the southpaw found the going tough after facing 43 balls for his 40 runs and fell to Unadkat in his attempt to switch hit a straight ball that crashed into his stumps.

Towards the end, Henriques and Hooda smashed some lusty hits over the rope to take the visitors past the 150-run mark. IANS