Supergiants chase down Daredevils

Cricket365
August 17, 2016

Rising Pune Supergiants secured a confidence-boosting seven-wicket victory over the Delhi Daredevils in an IPL encounter at Delhi on Thursday.

Sent in to bat, the Daredevils' innings was never really allowed to flourish, as the Supergiants bowlers kept the wickets falling at regular intervals, while a couple of unnecessary run-outs also made life harder for JP Duminy's men than it needed to be.

Sanju Samson, Duminy, Karun Nair, Sam Billings and Carlos Braithwaite all made scores in the 20s and 30s, but none were able to stay in and really capitalise on their good starts.

Duminy ended up top scoring with 34 as Delhi amassed a defendable, but hardly insurmountable, total of 162/7.

The Supergiants innings was a much more solid affair.

Ajinkya Rahana and Usman Khawaja put on 59 runs for the first wicket, before Rahana and Saurabh Tiwary put on 45 more for the second.

Imran Tahir was doing a good job for Delhi, and dismissed both Tiwary for 21 and arriving captain MS Dhoni for 27, but with Rahana providing the foundation, the total always looked well within reach.

Dhoni's dismissal in the penultimate over of the match gave Delhi some hope of forcing a result, but the writing was on the wall after Thisara Perera arrived at the crease and immediately smacked Tahir for two sixes.

That left the visitors needing just seven runs from the last over, which they chased down with ease thanks to a winning four from Rahane, who ended unbeaten on 63 as the Supergiants completed a seven-wicket victory with a handful of balls to spare.