PUNE ON THE RISE
Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) rode on an all-round effort from Ben Stokes and a hat trick from left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 12 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) tie at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.
With the win, the Steve Smith-led Supergiant vaulted to the second spot in the IPL standings, and almost booked their place for IPL playoffs while the Sunrisers remained fourth after their second successive loss.
Unadkat returned with figures of 5/30 from his four overs, including the hat trick in the final over, which saw the dismissals of Bipul Sharma, Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The left-armer also accounted for the wickets of the inform Yuvraj Singh and stumper Naman Ojha to get to his five wicket haul.
The left-armer was complimented well by Stokes, who first helped Pune reach 148/8 with a 25-ball 39, before taking three wickets to dent the hopes of the hosts.
Stokes struck with the wickets of the in-form Shikhar Dhawan (19) off his first delivery before packing New Zealander Kane Williamson (4) one ball later as the Sunrisers lost their first match on home soil this season.
Skipper David Warner (40 from 34 balls) did well to get to 500 runs in this edition of the IPL, striking four fours, including three off tweaker Washington Sundar besides clobbering Imran Tahir for a massive six.
The Australian added 54 runs for the third wicket with Yuvraj (47 from 43) before Stokes returned to see Warner’s back with a short ball to be caught by Shardul Thakur at sweeper cover.
Tahir then jolted the hosts with the wicket of Moises Henriques (4) with a googly, which the batsman tried to cut but instead crashed onto the stumps. With the asking rate mounting, Yuvraj, who got a life on 32 belted a few boundaries and sixes to step up the gas and add 21 runs with Ojha (9), before slicing a short and wide ball from Unadkat only to land in Rahul Tripathi’s hands. —