IPL 2016: RCB dwarf Supergiants to return to winning ways

Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 185/3 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 83(46), Virat Kohli 80(63); Thisara Perera 3/34) won against Rising Pune Supergiants 172/8 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 60(46), Thisara Perera 34(13); Kane Richardson 3/13, Shane Watson 2/31)

MS Dhoni and Ajinkya Rahane came together to rebuild the innings from scratch. The Indian ODI skipper was no where near his best in this innings, as he struggled to even put bat on ball. At the other end, Rahane moved along smoothly with occasional boundaries, and he showed some deft touches to hit the ball behind the stumps towards the third man region, time and again.

Eventually, the pressure got to Rahane and the mystery spinner from South Africa, Tabraiz Shamsi, got his first IPL wicket. The chinaman bowler slipped in a slider, which went fast Rahane's wild swing, and Rahul dismantled the stumps in a flash. Dhoni followed Rahane into the pavilion and the match looked over for Pune at this point.

However, Thisara Perera nearly, nearly turned the match around on its head. The Sri Lankan came out all guns blazing and played an astounding knock of 34 runs from just 13 balls. From 120/5 in 15.5 overs, Pune went to 164/5 in 18.3 overs, and all of a sudden an unlikely win for Pune looked to be on the cards. But Perera's juggernaut was, eventually, halted by Shane Watson in the 19th over, and his departure made the rest of the game a mere formality. RCB picked up three more wickets in the last over as Richardson ended a wonderful spell of fast bowling with figures of 3/13 and the Bengaluru-based franchise won by 13 runs.

Like RCB, Pune had also suffered two defeats in a row coming into the game and Dhoni made one change to the team he opted for against Kings XI Punjab. Rajat Bhatia came in for Irfan Pathan, as Pune backed their slower bowlers to the do the job.

The innings started on a familiar note for the Bengaluru-based franchise. KL Rahul was dismissed for just 7 after his attempted hoick, off Thisara Perera, over mid-on produced a thick outside edge to Ishant Sharma at third man. What followed that early wicket, has also been a familiar story for RCB this season – another crucial partnership between Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

The South African batsman brought up his half-century in the 12th over with an outstanding cut shot through the cover point boundary. Ravichandran Ashwin did not give him any width at all, but de Villiers used the depth of the crease brilliantly to manufacture his own to find the fence.

Kohli, who was more circumspect of the two on the night, also followed suit and brought up his half-century in the 15th over. The duo brought up their third century partnership this season in the process and at 128/1, they looked well set for a huge total on the board.