Their campaign back on track after a victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad, a rejuvenated Rising Pune Supergiants now face an uphill task of taming the rampaging Gujarat lions in an IPl clash here on Friday.
After a comprehensive win over defending champions Mumbai Indians in the tournament-opener, Pune suffered four losses on the trot before a win over Hyderabad via Duckworth-lewis method last Tuesday gave them a new lease of life and the Debutantes will look to continue the positive run.
However, standing in their way are the lions, who have been in red-hot form this season. With five wins in six matches, they are the table-toppers, who have crushed all opponents apart from the sunrisers.
In fact, Pune too were in their firing line early in the tournament when the lions had beaten them by seven wickets at Rajkot and the Supergiants will be itching to extract revenge on Friday.
The lions have depended on their batting trio of Aaron Finch, Brendon McCullum and skipper Suresh Raina to score runs in this IPl.
Among the bowlers, the pace duo of Dwayne Bravo and Kulkarni have been the top picks for lions with 7 and 6 wickets respectively, while the spin combination of Tambe and Jadeja too have contributed with 5 & 4 scalps.
The spin-pace duo of M Ashwin and Thisara Perera have done the bulk of the damage for his team, picking up 7 and 6 wickets so far and the onus will be on them.
Usman Khawaja has replaced injured Faf du Plessis for Pune. "One of our mainstays Du Plessis has injured his finger during the course of the last match and has returned home for further treatment. We wish him speedy recovery," coach Fleming said.