Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) chose the wrong evening to register their lowest score (73) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and as a consequence, relinquished what was a wonderful opportunity to reach the knockout round for the third time in their history as an IPL franchise. Put into bat by Steve Smith, Kings XI batsmen fell like nine pins and the visitors were bundled out in 15.5 overs. 74 was just too small a target to inspire Glenn Maxwell and co. to come out and make a match of it. And, Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) batted professionally to win the match by nine wickets. This win takes Pune into second place and means they will face a team who they did the double on in the league stage, Mumbai Indians, in qualifier 1.
Pune’s bowling wasn’t magnificent but the batting from the visitors was inexplicably ordinary. The only explanation is the Kings XI batsmen were maybe a little nervous going into a match with such high stakes and the loss of early wickets didn’t allow them to rid themselves of the nervous energy that they were carrying early on.
Jaydev Unadkat produced a breakthrough on the first ball of the match, dismissing Martin Guptill with a juicy half-volley which could have been hit anywhere. And Kings XI never recovered from this early loss. One batsman after another edged through to MS Dhoni and the slip cordon or played aerial shots that found their way to the Pune fielders who were stationed perfectly. At times, you will not have been wrong to wonder if this was a Test match, because the wickets fell in a heap and the nature of dismissals were synonymous of what you normally see in the longest version of the sport. Axar Patel top-scored for the visitors with 22.
Because of poor batting, the Rising Pune bowlers looked like world beaters. Shardul Thakur took a three-fer (3/19) by bowling disciplined lines and lengths, while spearhead Jaydev Unadkat, along with the Aussie duo of Adam Zampa and Daniel Christian, took two wickets each. Unadkat, in addition to bowling with incision, was acrobatic on the field, as he took a great catch to dismiss Rahul Tewatia and then affected a brilliant run-out to dismiss Eoin Morgan.
In what was a small chase, Ajinkya Rahane got some runs (34*) under his belt ahead of the first qualifier and finished the match off with a six over long-on off Maxwell. Tripathi was the most aggressive and played his natural game really, scoring 28 off 20 balls before being bowled by Axar Patel. Steve Smith (15*) was giving Rahane company when the winning runs were hit.
Unadkat, for his spell of 3-14 dots-12-2, was awarded the man-of-the-match.
Supergiants vs Kings XI, 55th match scorecard
Playing XIs
Pune: 1. Steve Smith (c), 2. Rahul Tripathi, 3. Ajinkya Rahane, 4. Ben Stokes, 5. Manoj Tiwary, 6. MS Dhoni (wk), 7. Daniel Christian, 8. Washington Sundar, 9. Shardul Thakur, 10, Jaydev Unadkat, and 11. Adam Zampa
Punjab: 1. Glenn Maxwell (c), 2. Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3. Martin Guptill, 4. Shaun Marsh, 5. Eoin Morgan, 6. Axar Patel, 7. Rahul Tewatia, 8. Mohit Sharma, 9. Sandeep Sharma, 10. Swapnil Singh, and 11. Ishant Sharma
Scores
Kings XI: 73/10 (Axar 22; Thakur 3/19 and Christian 2/10)
Pune Supergiant: 78/1 (Rahane 34 and Tripathi 28; Axar 1/13)
| Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) innings (toss: Pune, who chose to bowl first) | |||||
| Batsman | Dismissal | Runs scored | No. of 4s | No. of 6s | Strike rate |
| Martin Guptill | caught Tiwary, bowled Unadkat | 0 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Wriddhiman Saha | caught Dhoni, bowled Christian | 13 (17) | 0 | 1 | 76.47 |
| Shaun Marsh | caught Smith, bowled Thakur | 10 (13) | 2 | 0 | 76.92 |
| Eoin Morgan | run out by Unadkat | 4 (4) | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Rahul Tewatia | caught Unadkat, bowled Thakur | 4 (3) | 1 | 0 | 133.33 |
| Glenn Maxwell | caught Rahane, bowled Thakur | 0 (3) | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Axar Patel | caught Dhoni, bowled Christian | 22 (20) | 1 | 1 | 110.00 |
| Swapnil Singh | caught Dhoni, bowled Unadkat | 10 (17) | 0 | 0 | 58.82 |
| Mohit Sharma | caught Christian, bowled Zampa | 6 (12) | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Ishant Sharma | caught Smith, bowled Zampa | 1 (5) | 0 | 0 | 20.00 |
| Sandeep Sharma | not out | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras: 3 wides | |||||
| KXIP’s total: 73/10 in 15.5 overs, at 4.61 runs per over | |||||
| KXIP’s fall of wickets: 0/1 (Guptill, 0.1), 19/2 (Marsh, 3.3), 24/3 (Morgan, 4.3), 31/4 (Tewatia, 5.2), 32/5 (Maxwell, 5.5), 51/6 (Saha, 9.2), 62/7 (Axar, 11.3), 69/8 (Swapnil, 13.4), 71/9 (Ishant, 15.1), and 73/10 (Mohit, 15.5) | |||||
| Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) bowling | |||||
| Bowlers | Overs | Dots bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Economy rate |
| Jaydev Unadkat | 3 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 4.00 |
| Shardul Thakur | 4 | 16 | 19 | 3 | 4.75 |
| Ben Stokes | 3 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 3.33 |
| Adam Zampa | 3.5 | 8 | 22 | 2 | 5.73 |
| Daniel Christian | 2 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 5.00 |
| Pune innings (target: 74 runs in 20 overs, at 3.70 runs per over) | |||||
| Batsman | Dismissal | Runs scored | No. of 4s | No. of 6s | Strike rate |
| Ajinkya Rahane | not out | 34 (34) | 1 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Rahul Tripathi | bowled Axar | 28 (20) | 4 | 1 | 140.00 |
| Steve Smith | not out | 15 (18) | 0 | 0 | 83.33 |
| Batsmen who didn’t bat: Ben Stokes, Manoj Tiwary, MS Dhoni, Daniel Christian, Washington Sundar, Jaydev Unadkat, Adam Zampa, and Shardul Thakur | |||||
| Extras: 1 wide | |||||
| RPS’s total: 78/1 in 12 overs, at 6.50 runs per over | |||||
| RPS’s fall of wickets: 41/1 (Tripathi, 5.3) | |||||
| Punjab bowling | |||||
| Bowlers | Overs | Dots bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Economy rate |
| Sandeep Sharma | 2 | 5 | 12 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Mohit Sharma | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Ishant Sharma | 1 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 12.00 |
| Rahul Tewatia | 3 | 10 | 14 | 0 | 4.67 |
| Axar Patel | 2 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 6.50 |
| Swapnil Singh | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Glenn Maxwell | 2 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 7.50 |