Read Also:Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rising Pune Supergiant: Highlights and summaryThe last four overs, saw RCB wickets fall real fast as Pune was consistently delivering economic over after another.
Pune, who were restricted to 161/8, were driven home by pacers Shardul Thakur (3/35), Jaydev Unadkat (2/25) and Ben Stokes (3/18) who bowled admirably to keep the unsafe RCB batting line-up under check. One win in five games leaves them with the prospect of having to win at least seven of the remaining nine games - five of which are away - to have a chance of securing a play-off berth.
But Dhoni and Smith fell off successive deliveries starting from the final ball of the 16th over.
Earlier, after being put into bat first, Pune had seemingly squandered a strong start to their innings with a batting collapse of five wickets for three runs, which included Stokes falling for two.
It was the solid, if unspectacular, contribution of the visitors' top four - with a little help down the order from Manoj Tiwary (27) - that provided the basis for Pune's triumph.
It was a disappointing outing for the home team as they lost wickets at regular intervals and never looked on course to chasing the total.
The Virat Kohli-led side are not far from the point of no-return on the league table.
Leg-spinner Samuel Badree broke the opening partnership as Rahane missed the length completely, allowing the ball to dismantle his stumps, with Pune at 63/1 in 7.4 overs.
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It's the way the players work on daily basis and they've had the courage to take on board elements of the game I wanted to see. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's 606 , Wright said: "They have got a massive fansbase, one of the biggest in Europe".
The Aussie pack: It was a quiet night for the Aussies in this match with Watson leaking 44 runs from his four overs and contributing 14 runs with the bat before being completely deceived bya Stokes slower ball.
That might be strictly hindsight: Rising Pune sent out even Dan Christian ahead of Tiwary.
Chasing the innings, RCB didn't get a good start, losing opener Mandeep Singh (0) who edged one to wicket-keeper off Shardul in the second over. Kohli tried to hit a bigger one but was caught by Rahane after he had scored 28 of 19 balls. He slapped it high and was caught by Rahane at sweeper.
RCB bowlers operated with discipline, giving no room for the batsmen.
With Imran Tahir taking out his South African compatriot AB de Villiers not long after, the Royal Challengers began to lose their grip on the match.
Right from that moment, the rest of the RCB batsmen neither withstand the RPS bowling attack nor scored more than 18 runs.
Watson followed Jadhav soon to the dug-out after being bowled by Stokes, as RCB looked down the barrel at 101/5 in 15.5 overs. Pawan Negi and Stuart Binny raised some hopes but Thakur dismissed both in the same over to all but seal the game.
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