Rising Pune Supergiant surely proved a point or two as they thrashed the Kings XI Punjab to not only qualify for the playoffs, but move up to the second place in the table, where they can have a second chance to make it to the finals.
Royal Challengers Bangalore on the other hand, finally had some reasons to celebrate as they overcame the Delhi Daredevils by 10 runs in the last league game of this year’s IPL.
In the match between Pune and Punjab, the Glenn Maxwell led side batted first and it was one forgettable day for the men in red. Martin Guptill was dismissed of the very first ball of the innings and after that the procession of the other batters followed.
Wriddhiman Saha, who scored a match-winning knock in Punjab’s last match could only muster 13 runs. Skipper Maxwell was dismissed for a duck. Axar Patel was the highest scorer with 22 runs. A thorough dismal performance resulted in Punjab scoring just 73 runs in this all-important clash.
Pune, in reply cruised to a nine wicket victory in 12 overs with Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith remaining unbeaten on 34 and 15 respectively.
With this huge win, Pune ended the league being the second placed team after the Mumbai Indians. Kings XI Punjab missed a good chance to qualify for the playoffs but their batting, among many other things have let them down, throughout the tournament.
In the second game of the day, Virat Kohli’s men ended their IPL 10 campaign with a win after they beat the Delhi Daredevils by 10 runs. Batting first, Chris Gayle finally got some runs under his belt as his 48, skipper Virat Kohli’s magnificent 58 and some pinch hitting by Kedar Jadhav (12), Sachin Baby (12) and Pawan Negi (13) ended Bangalore’s first innings at 161/6.
In reply, Delhi lost opener Sanju Samson (0) on the second ball of the chase. Rishabh Pant (45), Shreyas Iyer (32), Karun Nair (26) contributed to the run chase but the Bangalore bowlers led by Pawan Negi (3/10) restricted the Delhi total to just 151, 10 runs short of the Bangalore score.
This being a dead rubber did not tamper with the top four as both these teams had already been knocked out of the contentions for a playoff berth a long time back.
The four teams who have qualified for the playoffs are-
1. Mumbai Indians
2. Rising Pune Supergiant
3. Sunrisers Hyderabad
4. Kolkata Knight Riders
Brief scores-
Kings XI Punjab– 73 all out in 15.5 overs ( Axar Patel 22, Wriddhiman Saha 13 ; Shardul Thakur 3/19) lost to Rising Pune Supergiant 78/1 in 12 overs ( Ajinkya Rahane 34*, Rahul Tripathi 28 ; Axar Patel 1/13) by 9 wickets.
Royal Challengers Bangalore 161/6 (Virat Kohli 58, Chris Gayle 48 ; Pat Cummins 2/21) beat Delhi Daredevils 151 all out in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant 45, Shreyas Iyer 32 ; Pawan Negi 3/10) by 10 runs.
(Kolkata Bureau)