The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rising Pune Supergiants was a match of absolute contrasts. Pune had made a statement by starting this IPL with an emphatic win over the defending champions Mumbai Indians. On the other hand, SRH had started their campaign with two losses. The situations have changed, as RPS came into this game with 4 consecutive losses and are second last on the table while SRH came in with a hat-trick of wins and were 4th in the points table as RPS won the toss and elected to bowl first.

As the SRH openers walked out to bat, they were greeted by showers as it has been showering in some parts of Hyderabad. When the game resumed, David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan took strike. With dots in the first three deliveries, Warner looked restless. He cut a short and wide delivery from Ashok Dinda towards backward point and Ajinkya Rahane took a sharp low catch. Dinda struck again when he was brought back into the attack in the fifth over to get the wicket of Aditya Tare. Eoin Morgan was dismissed without troubling the scorers when he was set up by Mitch Marsh and was caught behind by Dhoni. The loss of Morgan left them reeling at 29-3 at the end of the powerplay. RPS kept bagging wickets and the scoring almost came to a standstill as SRH were 36-5 around the halfway mark. R Ashwin bowled superbly to choke the SRH batting during this phase of the match. Shikhar Dhawan hung in there to score a fighting 56(53) and it looked as if SRH won”t be able to cross the hundred mark, but thanks to the late surge from Bhuvneshwar Kumar they reached 118.

RPS bowlers put in a marvellous effort to restrict the in-form Sunrisers to such a low total. Their batsman had to just keep their composure without collapsing as the total was easily achievable. RPS lost their most consistent batsman Rahane in the first over as he went for a flashy cut but was caught at point by Morgan. Faf du Plessis and Steven Smith took RPS to 80 at a healthy run rate as they had to keep the rains in mind. Du Plessis was caught behind off the faintest of nicks, by Naman Ojha. It was still drizzling when the RPS skipper came in to bat. Dhoni was dismissed when he cut a delivery straight to the point fielder. Soon the downpour started and the fields were once again covered. RPS were still 30 runs ahead according to the D/L method, even after the two quick wickets. Umpires and the captains decided to call off the matches and RPS finally secured their second win of the season. RPS fans would have been waiting for it for a long time, after a couple of close games. It will be interesting to see how RPS proceeds from here.