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Sundar stuns Mumbai Indians as Rising Pune Supergiant progress to final

by Sandeep Shivam Tuesday 16 May 2017

MS Dhoni was at his aggressive best against Mumbai Indians

©REUTERS

Rising Pune Supergiant 162-4 (Tiwary 58) beat
Mumbai Indians 142-9 (Patel 52) by 20 runs
Qualifier 1, Indian Premier League, Wankhede Stadium
Scorecard

Washington Sundar picked a three-wicket haul and conceded just 13 runs as Rising Pune Supergiant defended 163 runs against Mumbai Indians successfully to win the Qualifier game at Wankhede Stadium by 20 runs, thereby booking a berth in the final of the Indian Premier League.

Mumbai on the other end will get another opportunity to make to the final provided they manage to win the Qualifier 2 game in Bangalore on Friday which will have either Kolkata Knight Riders or Sunrisers Hyderabad as the opponent.

Mumbai won the toss and decided to field first. In the first over of the innings, Mitchell McClenaghan (1-46) castled Rahul Tripathi (0) while in the second over Lasith Malinga (1-14) had Steven Smith (1) caught at backward point.

Ajinkya Rahane (56) hit three more boundaries to ensure Pune ended the powerplay at 33 for two.

With the spinners in operation, Pune managed just three runs in a span of 10 deliveries that affected their run-rate but soon Rahane along with Manoj Tiwary (58) stepped up the accelerator. Rahane was the first to reach his fifty off 38 deliveries but was soon trapped LBW by Karn Sharma (1-30).

MS Dhoni (40 not out) announced his arrival with a six to deep midwicket and by the 18th over, Pune reached 121 for three.

In the 19th over bowled by McClenaghan, Tiwary hit a six and a four to reach his fifty while Dhoni plundered two more sixes to make it 26 off the over and in the final over the former Indian captain hit two more maximums to ensure Pune reached 162 for four in the 20 overs.

In the first four overs of the chase, Parthiv Patel (57) hit three sixes but Lendl Simmons' (5) 13-ball vigil ended when he was run out at the non strikers end after a deflection from the bowler Shardul Thakur (3-37).

The sixth over bowled by Sundar (3-16) proved to be a game changer as Rohit Sharma (1) was given out LBW despite involvement of an inside edge while Ambati Rayudu (0) was caught at midwicket.

Kieron Pollard (7) too failed to carry on as he became Sundar's third victim following which Hardik Pandya (14) hit two boundaries and a six to help Mumbai reach 71 for four at halfway mark.

However, from there on, Mumbai hardly gained any momentum as Thakur snared a three wicket haul to keep the hosts down to 142 for nine in the 20 overs. Sundar was awarded the player of the match for his match-winning spell.