Rising Pune Supergiants
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Rising Pune Supergiant (often abbreviated as RPS) was a franchise
cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
team based in
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
,
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, that played in the
Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based Professional sports league organization, fr ...
in
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and as a finalist in
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. It was the second team representing
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
after Pune Warriors India. The team, along with Gujarat Lions, featured as two-season replacements for Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who were suspended due to their involvement in illegal betting by their respective owners. This team was disbanded after Chennai Super Kings returned to the IPL in
2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
. The Rising Pune Supergiant franchise was owned by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group controlled by Sanjiv Goenka. The team name was announced (as ''Pune Supergiants'') on 18 January 2016 by Goenka in
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and Raghu Iyer was appointed CEO. The owners changed the team name to ''Rising Pune Supergiant'' on 26 March 2017. The team lost the 2017 IPL Final to
Mumbai Indians The Mumbai Indians are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Indians were founded in 2008 and are owned by India's largest Conglomerate (company), co ...
by 1 run, which was the team's last game in the IPL. However, the same owner bought another franchise Lucknow Super Giants in February 2022. It is now among the 10 teams of the league and take part in it.


Home ground

The Rising Pune Supergiant's home ground was the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
. However, controversies arose over holding 2016 IPL games in Maharashtra due to water usage of the cricket stadiums during severe drought and the
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ordered all matches in May to be shifted out of the state. On 15 April 2016, it was reported that the Rising Pune Supergiants were considering the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vishakhapatnam as an alternate home ground.


Seasons


Indian Premier League


Sponsors and partners


Results summary


2016 season

The Rising Pune Supergiant made an excellent start to the season, convincingly winning their first game against the defending champions,
Mumbai Indians The Mumbai Indians are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Indians were founded in 2008 and are owned by India's largest Conglomerate (company), co ...
, by 9 wickets. 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. 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. They lost the next two games - against the Gujarat Lions and the
Mumbai Indians The Mumbai Indians are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Indians were founded in 2008 and are owned by India's largest Conglomerate (company), co ...
- at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. 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. 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. 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.


2017 season

After the auction, Pune axed MS Dhoni as captain and Steve Smith was appointed captain barely months before the start of the 2017 season. The franchise then changed their name to Rising Pune Supergiant, removing the 's', on 26 March 2017. Washington Sundar replaced Ravichandran Ashwin who was ruled out of the tournament with a sports hernia. 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 Mitchell Starc for ₹24.75 Crore in the 2024 IPL Player Auction). Imran Tahir was recruited by RPS to replace Mitchell Marsh, who was once again ruled out of the tournament due to a shoulder injury. 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 François "Faf" du Plessis ( ; born 13 July 1984) is a South African professional cricketer and former captain of the South Africa national cricket team. He is considered one of the greatest fielders of all time and among the best all-format ...
. RPS once again got off to a great start in IPL 2017 by beating the
Mumbai Indians The Mumbai Indians are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Indians were founded in 2008 and are owned by India's largest Conglomerate (company), co ...
by 7 wickets in their first game. However, losses against Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat Lions followed and it seemed like Pune were repeating what took place last year. 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, 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. 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. RPS faced the Mumbai Indians for the fourth time in the season, in the final at
Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
. 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.


Performance summary


Indian Premier League


Records


Most runs


Most wickets


See also

* Lucknow Super Giants


References

{{RPG Group Indian Premier League teams Cricket in Maharashtra Cricket in Pune Sports clubs and teams in India Cricket clubs established in 2016 2016 establishments in Maharashtra Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 2017 RPSG Group