Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Pune Supergiants to go top

VISAKHAPATNAM, India: Leg-spinner Adam Zampa’s six-wicket haul went in vain as Rising Pune Supergiants succumbed to a four-run defeat at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League match here on Tuesday night.

There was turn, and R Ashwin and Adam Zampa helped keep Sunrisers to 137, but there was also swing for the new ball, a bit of bounce, and grip for Mustafizur Rahman’s cutters.

The chase was a chess game. MS Dhoni promoted George Bailey and Ashwin to Nos 3 and 4 after the early loss of both openers, with the third-wicket pair ostensibly instructed to push the ball around and stabilise Supergiants’ innings, given the modest required rate.

Bailey and Ashwin put on 49 in eight overs, and when the partnership ended Supergiants needed 70 from 48 balls. Dhoni didn’t walk in then; he came in with 60 required from 40.

It eventually came down to 42 off the last four, and Dhoni and Thisara Perera, conscious of the risk of hitting out against Mustafizur, were content to take singles and twos against the left-armer.

The ploy kept Mustafizur wicketless, even as he conceded only 13 off his last two overs. Dhoni and Perera made up for that in the 18th over, in which they took 15 off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but they were still left needing 14 from the last over.

Ashish Nehra started the final over.

Perera skied the third ball to extra cover, leaving 12 to get off the last three. Dhoni hammered the first of them over the wide long-on boundary, but when he was run out going for a second that didn’t really exist — he went for it because he simply had to — Zampa was left needing to hit a six off the last ball, or a four to tie. He only managed an outside edge to a flying Naman Ojha behind the stumps as Nehra closed the match with a wide yorker.