Pune Supergiants restrict Delhi Daredevils to 162/7

Bowling with a lot of discipline, specially in the middle overs, Rising Pune Supergiants managed to restrict in-form Delhi Daredevils to a gettable 162 for seven in their Indian Premier League match, here on Thursday.

After being invited to bat, the host batsmen found starts but could not turn those into big scores.

Skipper JP Duminy, who led the side in place of Zaheer Khan, was the top-scorer for the side with his 34-run knock, which came off 32 balls with just one shot to the fence.

Sanju Samson (20), Karun Nair (32) and Sam Billings (24) were all guilty of throwing away their wickets after getting starts.

The Supergiants stifled the Daredevils innings with excellent bowling from Rajat Bhatia (2/22) and R Ashwin (0/34) in the middle overs and had it not been for some powerful hits by Carlos Barthwaite (20 off 8), the Daredevils would have struggled to find momentum.

Pawan Negi contributed unbeaten 19 off 12, getting 13 runs of last over bowled by paceman Ashoke Dinda (1/34).

Dinda was consistent in hitting the right areas from the start and bowled at a decent pace to contain the home team openers. He bowled five dot balls to young Riashabh Pant (2) and the pressure got the better of the young batsman, who missed the line trying to whack one out and was bowled in the paceman’s second over.

Karun Nair made a confident start with a boundary off Scott Boland, adding to the two boundaries hit by Samson off Thisara Perera. Dinda, who was very impressive in his first two overs, conceded two boundaries in his third over to Nair, who drove the first ball to cover region and then relished a waist height full toss which he dispatched to the fine leg boundary.

Daredevils were going at a decent pace but Samson suffered a soft dismissal, ending his 35-run partnership with Nair, when he chipped one straight to R Ashwin at mid-wicket. That was the last ball of power-play overs with the hosts sitting pretty at 48 for two.

Off-spinner R Ashwin and Bhatia then bowled very tight two overs each as Daredevils reached 69 for three at the half stage. Bhatia also got rid off Nair (32) in the 10th over.

Billings, who had made an impression on his debut at this very ground against Kolkata Knight Riders, joined his captain Duminy at the crease. The England batsman brought the crowd to its feet when he smashed R Ashwin for two consecutive sixes in the 13th over.

The first landed in long-on stands and the second in long-off region. Duminy brought up the team’s hundred with a couple in the last ball of that over.

Bhatia returned to complete his quota and dismissed Billings, who attempted a switch hit and found the fielder near boundary ropes. Bhatia finished with excellent figures of 4-0-22-2.

Brathwaite batted with his usual flair as he launched Murugan Ashwin for two sixes. The first was a monstrous 100m hit. The West Indian then hammered a flat straight six off Boland in the next over but failed to connect a slow bouncer and was holed out to Perera at square leg.