Punjab blow away their chance

Pune, Rising Pune Supergiant cruised into the Indian Premier League (IPL) playoffs with a thoroughly one-sided nine-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab in their final do-or-die league match here today.
In a show of complete domination, Pune first bowled out Punjab for a paltry 73, and then knocked off the runs in just 12 overs to finish second in the points tally with 18 points. Incidentally, it’s the ninth time in 10 seasons that a team involving Mahendra Singh Dhoni has made it to the last-four stage. In the first eight seasons, the Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings made the last-four on all occasions.
Pune will play Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1 while Sunrisers Hyderabad (3rd with 17 points) will meet Kolkata Knight Riders (4th with 16 points) in the Eliminator.
Put in to bat, Kings XI Punjab came up with their worst batting performance of the season in the match that mattered the most. After the high of scoring 230 against Mumbai Indians in the last game, they appeared completely clueless, turning the must-win game into a completely one-sided show.
For Punjab, the contest and the opportunity to make it to the playoffs ended when their skipper Glenn Maxwell (0) got out with the scoreboard reading 32/5. They were bowled out in 15.5 overs, with Axar Patel finishing as the top-scorer with 22 runs.
Punjab had a horror start as they lost opener Martin Guptill on the very first ball of the innings — the Kiwi drove a Jaydev Unadkat delivery uppishly to Manoj Tiwary at short-cover. Shaun Marsh (13) hit a couple of boundaries before he failed to clear Steve Smith at mid-off off Shardul Thakur; Unadkat’s direct throw caught Eoin Morgan (4) short of his crease; and Rahul Tewatia (4) mistimed a pull off Thakur, and was caught by Unadkat at short fine-leg. A couple of deliveries later, Maxwell flicked straight to Ajinkya Rahane at the deep square-leg boundary. At 32/5, Kings XI were staring at a disaster. And then leg-spinner Adam Zampa joined the party and polished off the tail.
For Pune, Thakur (3/19) was the pick of the bowlers; he got fantastic support from Jaydev Unadkat (2/12), Adam Zampa (2/22) and Dan Cristian (2/10).
Walk in the park
The chase was merely a formality. Rahul Tripathi and Ajinkya Rahane gave Pune a good start — the duo gathered 41 runs for the first wicket. With there being no pressure of run-rate, Rahane (34*) and skipper Steve Smith (15*) helped the side ease to a nine-wicket win.