5 memorable moments from the RPSG-DD match that don't fade away

As high-flying Delhi Daredevils locked horns against the struggling Rising Pune Supergiants, people were expecting the former to continue with their impressive form. This game was a test of wits between Zaheer Khan and MS Dhoni—and, in the end, the former’s mistake to give Shami the ball in the death overs proved to be fatal.

After a good team effort with the bat, Delhi posted a total of 162 while losing 7 wickets. Pune replied strongly with the bat, but lost ground somewhere in the middle due to some great bowling from Zak and his men.

But then Mohammad Shami lost his line-and-length and Pune clawed back into the game to deal the final blow on Delhi.

There were several memorable moments from the match that don't fade away, quite like the Axe Signature range of body perfumes. Here are 5 of the best:

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Karun Nair's flying bat

When we see the ball flying around the park, a sumptuous feeling of well-being oozes over us. After all, however wrong this might sound against the bowlers, people enjoy watching raining sixes than wickets.

However, watching the bat fly away from the hand of the batsman is another sight to behold.

And that is exactly what happened when Karun Nair was batting. In the final ball of the 5th over, he tried to swinging Dinda’s ball out of the park—but only managed to fly his bat away. It almost reached Perrera who was standing at square leg. A bad way to miss out on a free hit.

Brathwaite’s blast

The only thing this man knows is to smack the ball out of the park with his incredible power. It seems that he doesn’t like taking ones or twos—and why would he? If anyone could smack the way he can, they wouldn’t bother to run and waste their energy.

Against Pune, he played only 8 balls, but inflicted as much damage as he could. Scoring 20 runs off them, he hit 3 sixes to get there—displaying his ability to poach maximums. Only God knows what he could do if he lasts for 20-25 balls while batting at his best.

Rajat Bhatia—the ultimate unsung hero

He is by far the greatest unsung hero in the history of IPL. He has been ever-present in India’s premier T20 tournament and has consistently done well since its inception—mostly with the ball.

And under the stewardship of MS Dhoni, it seems like his game has gone up by a notch or two.

In the 4 overs that he bowled, he gave away 22 runs while taking 2 crucial wickets of Sam Billings and Karun Nair. It seems like MS Dhoni has found his new Joginder Sharma—and we all know how that ended!

Ajinkya Rahane continues his fine form

This is a man who gets a lot of stick for playing T20—even when he is in good form. If some day, he scores a double hundred in the shortest format of the game, people will criticize him for not being able to score 300 because he was batting too slow.

This might be an exaggeration, but it was a necessary one to indicate how much unwarranted flak he gets even he plays a good innings.

Against Delhi, he played another gem of an innings while exceeding the 130 mark for the strike-rate. His 48 ball 63 was even more special considering that he actually stayed till the very end and scored the winnings runs.

Shami the match winner for Pune

Yes, you read that right. Mohammad Shami is a player for Delhi Daredevils, but he was 'instrumental' in giving Pune the win they required so much.

At a time when the Rising Pune Supergiants required 37 off the last 3 overs, he managed to bowl so wide that it ran away to the fence—giving RPSG 5 runs plus an extra bowl. He gave away 20 runs in that over before returning to bowl the final over—with only 3 runs to defend.

And he managed to mess that up in a grand fashion as well by giving away a front foot no-ball in the very first ball. So, Ajinkya Rahane had to score 2 runs from 6 balls and had a free-hit ball coming up—and he smacked it for a boundary to give his team a win.