Supergiant hand RCB a royal thrashing

PUNE: Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a one-sided contest to register a big 61-run win in an Indian Premier League (IPL) clash here on Saturday.

After being asked to bat, riding on captain Steve Smith’s 45 and Manoj Tiwary’s unbeaten 44, Pune posted 157/3 and then their bowlers combined for a superlative effort to restrict RCB to 96/9 with Imran Tahir taking 3/18 and Lockie Ferguson 2/7.

Royal Challengers put Pune Supergiant in to bat and took the early initiative with the scalp of Ajinkya Rahane within the Powerplay overs.

The dismissal of Rahane didn’t deter Tripathi who then went on to smoke Sreenath Aravind for a six and clatter two fours off Yuzvendra Chahal and to close the Powerplay overs with his team managing 43/1.

RCB made two changes with Pawan Negi and Stuart Binny slowing down the game. The pressure got to Tripathi who in his effort to cut Negi outside edged one to wicketkeeper to be caught for 37. After 10 overs, Pune had just managed 67 runs for the cost of two wickets.

Tiwary, batting for the first time at No 4 this IPL season, joined the fun with a six of his own off Chahal in the next. It was a period of frenzied activity as far as Pune innings goes. In the space of three overs, they had added 40 runs. But Binny, after being hit for two fours by the Australian skipper, had him out caught at deep square leg for 45 denting Pune’s hopes of a competitive total.

RCB chase began in a similar fashion to that of Pune’s innings. They lost opener Travis Head early as he inside edged one from Jaydev Unadkat that just about managed to disturb the bail. The other opener, Virat Kohli, was in better touch. He collected three fours in four balls off Deepak Chahar in the third over — two off full deliveries and one a lucky edge rolling to third man boundary. For company, he had AB de Villiers but he ended up driving one from paceman Lockie Ferguson straight into the hands of short cover fielder to be caught for 3. After the end of Powerplay, RCB were 39/2 - a similar start but at the cost of an extra wicket.