Vintage MS Dhoni helps RPS chase 177 against Sunrisers Hyderabad with last-ball boundary

MS Dhoni took cricket fans down memory lane with a last-ball boundary to win the match for Rising Pune Supergiant against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday. The former India and RPS skipper hit an unbeaten 61 off 34 balls to take his team past the finish line, after they needed more than 15 runs per over at one stage. The win was Pune’s second on the trot, and took them off the bottom of the table.

Henriques steps in for Yuvi

The big news at the toss was that Yuvraj Singh was missing the match because “he’s sick”, according to Sunrisers skipper David Warner. Yuvraj’s absence in the SRH middle-order would be a huge one to fill, and the team needed someone else to step in, especially after their slow run-rate for two-thirds of their innings.

At the end of 13 overs, the Sunrisers were ambling along at 85/2. Moises Henriques had just walked in to bat. The pitch was good to bat on, which meant SRH needed at least 180 to defend. Their highest score in the two away games prior to this one was 158, and they lost both those matches.

However, there wasn’t to be a repeat on Saturday as Henriques helped his team smash 91 off the last seven overs to reach a par score of 176/3. His unbeaten 55 off 28 balls included six fours and two sixes. Half of those runs, and five boundaries, came via slogs in the mid-wicket region. His square cuts were also a joy to watch.

Warner’s uncharacteristic struggle

In the end, Henriques made up for his team’s slow start, which included a laboured 43 off 40 balls from Warner. This was his second slowest innings in T20s while batting first and facing 30 balls or more in the IPL, reported ESPNcricinfo. The innings was so unusual of the Australian pocket dynamo that experts feared he was carrying an injury.

His effort was enough to get him the Orange Cap for being the leading run-scorer in the tournament with 282 from seven matches, but Warner wasn’t pleased with himself, admitting that he didn’t get any momentum. “The wicket didn’t play as well as I thought it might,” he said, while praising Henriques’s innings that got his team to “a competitive total”.

Whether it was really a competitive total was debated as well:

Rahul Tripathi’s maiden IPL fifty

If Rahul Tripathi had not made a name in this IPL before this game, he sure has now. He had a couple of quickfire thirties to his name before Saturday, but stepped it up to score his maiden T20 half-century. He was dropped on 17, and made SRH pay for it.

Tripathi was bought by RPS in the auction for his base price of Rs 10 lakh. He had scored only 185 runs from 11 innings in the Ranji Trophy, so there was no evidence available that he would be worth the investment. However, he responded to his IPL auction pick with 157 runs from three innings in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, including 95 off 74 balls in the quarter-finals, which probably would have given the RPS team management confidence to try him out.

And he hasn’t disappointed.

Tripathi looked good to score big on Saturday, but had to walk back to the dugout after scoring 59 off 41 balls following a brilliant direct hit from Rashid Khan off his own bowling. Pune were at 98/3 in 13.1 overs at the time, needing over 11 runs an over to win. They needed someone else to step up.

Dhoni is back!

Tripathi’s wicket brought Ben Stokes to the crease to join MS Dhoni, who hadn’t been in the best of nick. Dhoni’s strike rate in this IPL prior to Saturday was in the eighties – an almost unbelievable figure.

Stokes did not last long, flicking Bhuvneshwar Kumar to deep mid-wicket at the start of the 17th over. The required run-rate at the time was over 14, as an in-form Manoj Tiwary walked in to join Dhoni. Bhuvi bowled an excellent over and even Tiwary’s four off the last ball was not enough to relieve some pressure off his team, who required 47 off the last three overs. Pune needed at least one big over of more than 20 runs.

Mohammad Siraj was given the ball for the 18th over. He had gone for 25 in three wicketless overs prior to it. Tiwary and Dhoni knew this was their chance, and they switched on. Tiwary first flicked a length delivery to the deep square-leg boundary, before Dhoni launched one into the stands behind long-on. Siraj went short and slow the next ball, but Dhoni read it and cut him for four more. RPS managed 17 off the over, bringing the equation to 30 needed from the last 12 balls.

Even Bhuvneshwar seemed to have felt the nerves after that over, as he bowled a wide off the first ball of the 19th. The next two balls were yorker length but down both leg and off-side, and Dhoni managed to dispatch them to the boundary. The former India and RPS captain then brought out the short-arm jab to smack Bhuvi over long-on for six to bring up his fifty off just 29 balls. RPS did not hit any more boundaries in the over, but 19 runs came off it; 11 more were needed off the last six balls.

Siddharth Kaul was given the ball for the final over. SRH were feeling the nerves, and it showed as Rashid Khan spilled a chance at the mid-wicket boundary and conceded four off the first ball. Kaul fought back and gave away only singles off the next three deliveries to make the equation four required off two. Dhoni tried to hit the next ball wide of the long-on fielder, but could not manage to, instead getting a couple. It was to be a last-ball finish, and with Dhoni at the crease, there can be only one result. Dhoni creamed a length ball through the covers for four to take his team through in style. He’s back!

Brief score:

Sunrisers Hyderabad 176/3 in 20 overs (Moises Henriques 55*, David Warner 43; Daniel Christian 1/20) lost to Rising Pune Supergiant 179/4 in 20 overs (MS Dhoni 61*, Rahul Tripathi 59, Rashid Khan 1/17) by six wicket.