Adam Zampa and Ashok Dinda shone with the ball by grabbing three wickets apiece before Ajinkya Rahane hit an unbeaten 42 as Rising Pune Supergiants beat Delhi Daredevils by 19 runs via Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-interrupted match at Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.
Rahane hit five fours and a six in his 36-ball knock while chasing Delhi’s meagre total of 121/6 as Pune reached 76 for one in 11 overs before the umpires called off play after the second rain interruption.
At the first rain interruption, Pune were 57 for 1 in 8.2 overs with Rahane on 26 and George Bailey on 6. They returned after a rain break, which was for about an hour and were going to play their quota of 20 overs.
But rain came back again after playing another two overs and four deliveries. Rahane and Bailey added 19 runs in those 16 deliveries. Rahane added 16 runs for himself as he hit a four and a six off Mohammed Shami to take Pune ahead before the second rain break stopped play.
As rain continued persistently, the match was called off with Pune ahead of the par score of 57 by 19 runs.
The win did not change anything for Pune, who are already out of reckoning for a play-offs berth, apart from the addition of two more points to their earlier six, except that they are now in the seventh spot ahead of Kings XI Punjab.
For Daredevils, the loss will make it more difficult for them to book a play-offs berth as they remained at the sixth spot with 12 points from 12 matches.
They will now need to win both their remaining matches, against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore to have a chance for making it to the play-offs.
Put into bat, the Daredevils struggled to get the runs throughout their innings and lost wickets at regular intervals to end their innings with a meagre total.
Zampa (3/21) and Dinda (3/20) led the Pune bowling charge with brilliant spells to stifle Daredevils for runs. The Daredevils did not have any partnership worth the name, the highest being 28 for the unbroken seventh wicket stand between Chris Morris (38 not out) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (2 not out).
Had it not been the 22 runs Morris took from Thisara Perera in the last over by hitting two fours and two sixes, the Daredevils total would have been much lower.
One-down batsman Karun Nair top-scored with a 43-ball 41 and along with Morris, he was the only other Daredevils batsman who gave a semblance of a fight.
(With inputs from PTI)
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