Rising Pune Supergiant

The Rising Pune Supergiant made an excellent start to the season, convincingly winning their first game against the defending champions, Mumbai Indians, by 9 wickets.[11] However, they went on to lose their next four games - against the Gujarat Lions, Kings XI Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kolkata Knight Riders.[12][13][14][15] The inclusion of Ashok Dinda, in their 6th game of the season, provided a brief inspiration as the Supergiants beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 34 runs.[16] They lost the next two games - against the Gujarat Lions and the Mumbai Indians - at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.[17][18] The Supergiants were also briefly bolstered by the arrival of Australian batsmen Usman Khawaja and George Bailey against the Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla and went on to win the game by 7 wickets.[19][20] Pune's last game of the season was against Kings XI Punjab, with the loser finishing at the bottom of the points table. RPS was struggling to chase down a total of 172 despite a good start from the openers and they kept losing wickets at constant intervals. RPS needed 23 runs from the last over which was bowled by Axar Patel with captain MS Dhoni on the crease. After a wide, four, six and two dot balls, RPS were left requiring 12 runs from the last two balls. It seemed the game was over but Dhoni hit two sixes off the last two balls. This win ensured RPS didn't finish at the bottom of the points table.[21] At the end of the 2016 IPL, the Supergiants won only 5 games out of 14, and won only 2 of their 7 home games - 4 at the MCA Stadium in Pune and 3 at their new home ground, the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vishakhapatnam. They finished at seventh place in the IPL points table.[22][23]

After the auction, Pune axed MS Dhoni as captain and Steve Smith was appointed captain barely months before the start of the 2017 season.[24] The franchise then changed their name to Rising Pune Supergiant, removing the 's', on 26 March 2017.[25] Washington Sundar replaced Ravichandran Ashwin who was ruled out of the tournament with a sports hernia.[26] RPS bought Ben Stokes for ₹14.5 Crore at the auction, making him the most expensive overseas player in the history of IPL at the time (this record was later broken when Kolkata Knight Riders bought Australian pacer Pat Cummins for ₹15.5 Crore in the 2020 IPL Player Auction).[27] Imran Tahir was recruited by RPS to replace Mitchell Marsh, who was once again ruled out of the tournament due to a shoulder injury.[28] This decision proved to be extremely decisive, as Imran Tahir went on to take 18 wickets in 12 games for RPS before leaving for his national team, along with Faf du Plessis.

RPS once again got off to a great start in IPL 2017 by beating the Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets in their first game.[29] However, losses against Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat Lions followed and it seemed like Pune were repeating what took place last year.[30][31][32] However, results picked up and RPS won 7 out of their next 8 games, all of them by close margins, with the top performers being Rahul Tripathi, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Stokes, MS Dhoni and Imran Tahir. But a 6-day gap left them rusty and RPS lost to Delhi Daredevils by 7 runs,[33] forcing them to win their last game vs Punjab to qualify. In their do-or-die game vs Punjab, RPS skittled them out for 73 and won comfortably by 9 wickets, thus finishing in second place with 18 points and qualifying for the play-offs.[34][35]

RPS faced the Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, with a win securing them a spot in the final. RPS batted first and posted a slightly below-par total of 162–4, with 41 runs coming from the last two overs, thanks to well-paced innings from Manoj Tiwary and Ajinkya Rahane and a late surge from MS Dhoni. Washington Sundar ripped apart the middle order of the Indians and finished with career best figures of 3–16 in 4 overs. Shardul Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat chipped in as Pune beat the Mumbai Indians comfortably by 20 runs.[36]

RPS faced the Mumbai Indians for the fourth time in the season, in the final at Hyderabad. This was Rising Pune Supergiant's last game in the IPL. RPS had a psychological edge over Mumbai, considering RPS had beaten them on all three meetings in the season. Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat first. Jaydev Unadkat and Adam Zampa took key wickets as Mumbai crumbled to 79-7 but a late surge from Krunal Pandya meant that Mumbai finished with a slightly below par score of 129–8. RPS looked comfortable after the powerplay but over-cautious batting cost them dearly. Ajinkya Rahane scored runs easily but captain Steve Smith struggled and things took a turn when Rahane got out for 44. MS Dhoni arrived but was quickly removed for 10 and Pune were left requiring 11 runs from the last over with Smith and Manoj Tiwary at the crease. Tiwary hit a four on the first ball off Mitchell Johnson's bowling and RPS looked to have the trophy in the bag. But Smith and Tiwary got out off consecutive deliveries which left RPS requiring 7 runs from 3 balls. A single from Washington Sundar and a double from Daniel Christian meant RPS required 4 runs from the last ball. Unfortunately, RPS could only complete two runs before Sundar was run out. Thus, Mumbai Indians won by 1 run to get their 3rd IPL title.[37][38]