Rahane, Tiwary, Dhoni and Washington pin Mumbai, power Pune into final

Mumbai: Tamil Nadu teenager Washington Sundar (3/16) came out with inspirational bowling performance to seal final berth for Rising Pune Supergiant in the Indian Premier League. The 17-year-old tall off-break bowler rocked the Mumbai Indians’ top order to set up 20-run win in the Qualifier 1 match at Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday night.

The visitors handed third defeat of the season to Mumbai Indians who will now play Qualifier 2 in Bengaluru while Pune head to Hyderabad for the final.

Parthiv Patel 52 (40b, 3x4, 3x6) launched a lone battle from the home side but lost partners before succumbing to pressure. Local pacer Shardul Thakur (3/37) also chipped in with three wickets to restrict Mumbai to 142/9.

Earlier, Mahendra Singh Dhoni rolled back the years with a display of superb hitting at the death to lift Pune to 162/4. The last two overs went for 41 runs.
Half centuries from Ajinkya Rahane 56 (43b, 5x4, 1x6) and Manoj Tiwary 58 (48b, 4x4, 2x6) steadied the visitors after a shaky start and Dhoni 40 (26b, 5x6) finished it with a flourish.

The hosts got off to a decent start with Parthiv dealing in sixes only until his partner Lendl Simmons (5) was unfortunately run-out at the non-strikers end. The pair had put on 35 in 27 balls. Sundar struck twice to remove unlucky Rohit Sharma (1) and Ambati Rayudu (0) in the sixth over to peg back the chase.
Sundar then dealt decisive blow to remove dangerous Kieron Pollard (7) caught by Steve Smith who had smartly positioned himself at short mid-wicket in similar fashion as Rayudu’s wicket. This meant, Mumbai slipped to 51/4 in eight overs.
Patel curbed his instincts and tried to do recovery job with Pandya brothers (Hardik and Krunal) but both gave it away. He eventually fell immediately after completing half-century to end any slim hopes from home fans.

Mumbai Indians bowlers had kept things tight in the first 18 overs till Tiwary and Dhoni smashed Mitchell McClenaghan (1/46) and Jasprit Bumrah (0/33) to give their total some respectability and spoil the bowlers’ figures. Lasith Malinga ironically bowled only three overs for just 14 runs for the wicket of Smith (1).

Scorecard

Rising Pune Supergiant: A. Rahane lbw b KV Sharma 56, R. Tripathi b McClenaghan 0, S. Smith c H. Pandya b Malinga 1, M. Tiwary run out (Bumrah) 58, MS Dhoni (not out) 40. Extras (lb 2, w 4, nb 1) 7. Total (for four wickets in 20 overs) 162.
FoW: 1-6, 2-9, 3-89, 4-162.
Bowling: McClenaghan 4-0-46-1, Malinga 3-0-14-1, Bumrah 4-0-33-0, Karn 4-0-30-1, Pandya 4-0-22-0, Pandya 1-0-15-0.
Mumbai Indians: L. Simmons run out (Thakur) 5, P. Patel c Christian b Thakur 52, R. Sharma lbw b Washington Sundar 1, A. Rayudu c Smith b Washington Sundar 0, K. Pollard c Smith b Washington Sundar 7, H. Pandya c Christian b Ferguson 14, K. Pandya c Christian b Thakur 15, M. McClenaghan c Unadkat b Thakur 12, K. Sharma  c Dhoni b Unadkat 4, J. Bumrah not out 16, L. Malinga not out 7. Extras (lb-2, w-7) 9. Total (for nine wickets in 20 overs) 142.
FoW: 1-35, 2-41, 3-41, 4-51, 5-75, 6-101, 7-103, 8-111, 9-134.
Bowling: J. Unadkat 4-0-24-1, Washington Sundar 4-0-16-3, L. Ferguson 3-0-21-1, S. Thakur 4-0-37-3, A. Zampa 1-0-9-0, D. Christian 4-0-33-0.