All that Rising Pune Supergiants has got to play for is pride as they have already been knocked out of the race for the play-offs. Kings XI Punjab are another team who are no longer in the race for Top 4. The next team that is in the danger from running out of the Top 4 race is Delhi Daredevils. As they face RPS in this match, a win would keep their hopes alive while a loss can make their chances close to none.
Dhoni won the toss and chose to field, adding psychological pressure on Zaheer and Co as very few teams have been successful defending. DD batsmen were put into early pressure by the Ashok Dinda as he got openers out early on. Karun Nair played a slow yet important innings and Chris Morris scored a quick-fire 38 from 20 balls to take the teams score to 121 runs in 20 overs.
Khawaja and Rahane started well for RPS but Khawaja lost his wicket yet again after getting a good start. Rain delayed the match for some time but the rain Gods were kind enough to let the game resume in a short while. But after couple of overs, the rain made its way back and RPS were way ahead of the DLS par score. After a while RPS were announced as winners as per DL Method.
Here’s a list of interesting numbers and stats from this match –
23rd players this season – Deepak Chahar makes his IPL debut by representing RPS. He also the 23rd player fielded by the RPS team this season, the most by any team in IPL 2016.
Powerplay or not – For the 3rd time in powerplays has Delhi Daredevils scored less than 30 runs. Rest of the other teams haven’t scored less than 30 in powerplays more than once.
Most Stumpings – MS Dhoni now has most number of stumpings to his name in IPL. He has effected 27 stumpings in IPL while Dinesh Karthik, who is on 2nd is behind Dhoni with 26 stumpings.
RPS – Rain Connection – Three matches in IPL 2016 have been interrupted by rain, coincidentally – all 3 include Rising Pune Supergiants.