Rising Pune Supergiants brought their stuttering IPL campaign back on track with a convincing 34-run victory over hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad, via the Duckworth-Lewis method, in a rain-affected match, at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium, in Hyderabad, on Tuesday.
Supergiants restricted Sunrisers to a modest 118 for 8 after a rain-delayed start and were comfortably placed at 94 for three in their chase when the skies opened up again, forcing suspension of play, which never resumed and Supergiants were declared winners.
It was the first victory for Supergiants after four straight defeats.
Despite their first defeat after three straight victories, Hyderabad remain in fourth place on the league table with six points, while Supergiants rose a rung to sixth with four points.
Exploiting favourable conditions, Rising Pune Supergiants revelled as the pace duo of Ashok Dinda (3-23) and Mitchell Marsh (2-14) rattled Hyderabad's top-order.
Rain forced a one-hour delay and sluggish conditions vindicated the decision to bowl first.
Dinda extracted good bounce from the track and scalped David Warner (0) and Aditya Tare (8) early in the innings.
Warner slashed a wide delivery straight to Ajinkya Rahane while Tare's miscued pull was taken by Thisara Perera.
Marsh too was impressive from the other end, getting rid of the dangerous Eoin Morgan (0).
The hosts owed their total to opener Shikhar Dhawan, who struck a fighting unbeaten 56 which was inclusive of two fours and a six.
Dhawan held one end tightly but kept losing partners at the other.
Marsh completed his quota of overs with another wicket, by dismissing Moises Henriques.
In between, Ravichandran Ashwin sent back Deepak Hooda with the first ball of his spell.
It set the stage for Supergiants to push for a much-needed victory.
The hosts were gasping at 32 for five with Dhawan and Naman Ojha having a great task at hand to repair the innings.
The two played sensibly, focusing more on ones and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking. They waited for the odd bad ball for big shots.
One such shot came in the 15th over when Ojha lofted Rajat Bhatia for a maximum in the cow corner.
Ojha and Dhawan added 47 runs for the sixth wicket to lend some respectability to the total.
Dhoni brought back Dinda and the bowler responded by castling Ojha, who had scored 18 off 21 balls.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar played a very useful cameo of 21 runs, off just eight balls, which was crucial in taking the hosts past the three-figure mark.
Except for losing Ajinkya Rahane in the very first over, Supergiants were in complete control while replying.
Steve Smith and Faf Du Plessis went about their business calmly.
Comeback man Ashish Nehra and Mustafizur Rehman bowled well but Smith and Du Plessis were ready to buy some time.
They shared a 80-run stand that set up the easy chase.
Smith's unbeaten 46-run knock came off 30 balls and had seven boundaries in it, while Du Plesiss hit 30 off 21 balls, inclusive of three fours and two sixes.
The stand was broken by Moises Henriques when he had the South African caught behind.
Pune skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni promoted himself up the order and straight away smashed a four.
However, he did not last long, hitting one straight to Aditya Tare off Nehra.
Immediately after Dhoni's dismissal the skies opened up again and play never resumed.
