On 21 May 2017, going into the last over of the IPL final at Hyderabad, Rising Pune Supergiant needed 11 runs with seven wickets in hand and their captain, Steve Smith, on 51. They lost by one run. That single run is the whole of Pune's legacy in the record books: a franchise that existed for two seasons, finished seventh in the first, came within a boundary of the trophy in the second, and was then dissolved.
The 2017 season is usually told as Mumbai's third title. This is the other dressing room's story. It begins in February 2017, when Pune's owners removed MS Dhoni as captain, the only time in his IPL career he played a season as a follower. It runs through a ₹14.5 crore auction bet on Ben Stokes, a 17-year-old off-spinner named Washington Sundar, and an uncapped opener called Rahul Tripathi. And it ends with a team that beat Mumbai Indians three times in 2017 and still lost the fourth game, the one that counted.
The Franchise That Was Built to Be Temporary
2016: a stopgap season that went wrong
Rising Pune Supergiants (with a final "s" in 2016) were created with a two-year lifespan. When Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended for 2016 and 2017, the league added two temporary franchises: Pune, owned by Sanjiv Goenka's RPSG Group, and Gujarat Lions. Pune signed Dhoni as captain and built around him.
The 2016 season fell apart. Smith, Faf du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen and Mitchell Marsh were all injured at some point, and Pune won five of 14 matches to finish seventh. The 2016 story is told in our exile-years deep dive. What matters here is what the owners concluded from it: they needed a different team, and they thought they needed a different captain.
February 2017: Smith in, Dhoni out
On 19 February 2017 Pune named Steve Smith as captain. Dhoni had given up India's limited-overs captaincy a month earlier, in January 2017, so the move did not come out of nowhere, but in the IPL it was unprecedented. He had led Chennai in every season from 2008 to 2015 and Pune in 2016. In 2017, at 35, he would keep wicket and bat at five under a 27-year-old Australian.
The franchise even changed its name, dropping the final "s" to become Rising Pune Supergiant. Then, at the auction the same month, it paid ₹14.5 crore for Ben Stokes, at the time the most ever paid for an overseas player in an IPL auction.
An attack that cost very little
The batting was star-led. The bowling was not. Pune's most effective bowler in 2017 was Jaydev Unadkat, a left-arm seamer whose IPL career until then had been nomadic. Around him were Shardul Thakur, the Australian all-rounder Dan Christian, the South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir, Adam Zampa, a young New Zealander called Lockie Ferguson, and Washington Sundar, who played his first IPL season aged 17.
Season Narrative: From One Win in Four to the Final
April 2017: a false start
Pune's 2017 opened with Smith's 84 off 54 balls in a chase of 185 against Mumbai at Pune on 6 April, won with a ball to spare. Then they lost three in a row. Kings XI Punjab chased 164 in 19 overs at Indore on 8 April. Delhi Daredevils, now Delhi Capitals, made 205/4 at Pune on 11 April and bowled Pune out for 108, a 97-run defeat. Gujarat Lions chased 172 with 12 balls left at Rajkot on 14 April.
After four games Pune had one win, and a 97-run home defeat on their record. The Dhoni question was asked everywhere.
Dhoni's answer at Pune, 22 April
The season turned in a week. On 16 April Pune defended 161 at the Chinnaswamy against Royal Challengers Bangalore, with Stokes player of the match. On 22 April Sunrisers Hyderabad set 177 at Pune. Pune needed 30 off the last 12 balls. Dhoni took Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 19 in the 19th over, including a six and two fours, and hit the last ball of the match for four. He made 61 not out off 34 balls, the most-cited innings he played that season. Two days later, at the Wankhede, Pune defended 160 against Mumbai by three runs.
May 2017: Stokes, Tripathi, Unadkat
The middle of the season produced the innings that defined Pune's run.
- 1 May, Pune vs Gujarat Lions: chasing 162, Rahane, Smith, Tripathi and Manoj Tiwary scored 14 runs between them. Stokes made 103 not out off 63 balls, and Pune won with a ball to spare.
- 3 May, Eden Gardens: chasing 156 against Kolkata Knight Riders, Tripathi, still uncapped, hit 93 off 52 balls.
- 6 May, Hyderabad: Sunrisers needed 13 off the last over to chase 149. Unadkat bowled it, took a hat-trick (Bipul Sharma, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar) and conceded nothing: a triple-wicket maiden, and figures of 5/30.
Between 16 April and 14 May Pune won eight of ten. Their only defeats in that run were to Kolkata on 26 April and to Delhi at the Kotla on 12 May. The last league game, on 14 May at Pune, settled the top two: Kings XI, who needed a win to stay in the race, were bowled out for 73, Thakur 3/19 and Unadkat 2/12, and Pune knocked the runs off in 12 overs.
The playoffs: Sundar at Wankhede, Johnson at Hyderabad
Stokes had gone home for England duty after the league stage. In Qualifier 1 at the Wankhede on 16 May, Pune lost Tripathi and Smith for one run between them, and then Rahane (56), Tiwary (58) and Dhoni (40 not out off 26) took them to 162/4. Sundar, 17, bowled four overs for 16 and took three wickets. Mumbai made 142/9. Pune were in the final.
The final, at Hyderabad on 21 May, was a low-scoring grind. Unadkat removed Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons in the third over, Zampa took Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard in the same over, and only Krunal Pandya's 47 got Mumbai to 129/8. Sundar bowled four overs for 13.
Pune's chase was patient to the point of stalling. Rahane made 44, Smith 51. They needed 30 off the last 18 balls and then 11 off the last over, bowled by Mitchell Johnson. Tiwary hit the first ball for four. He was caught off the second, Smith off the third. A bye and two twos left Pune needing three off the last ball to win. Christian hit it for two, Washington Sundar was run out going for the third, and Mumbai won by one run.
The Data: Pune's 2017 in Numbers
Every Rising Pune Supergiant result in 2017
| Date | Opponent | Venue | Pune | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Apr | MI | Pune | 187/3 | 184/8 | Won by 7 wkts |
| 8 Apr | KXIP | Indore | 163/6 | 164/4 | Lost by 6 wkts |
| 11 Apr | DD | Pune | 108 | 205/4 | Lost by 97 runs |
| 14 Apr | Gujarat Lions | Rajkot | 171/8 | 172/3 | Lost by 7 wkts |
| 16 Apr | RCB | Bengaluru | 161/8 | 134/9 | Won by 27 runs |
| 22 Apr | SRH | Pune | 179/4 | 176/3 | Won by 6 wkts |
| 24 Apr | MI | Mumbai | 160/6 | 157/8 | Won by 3 runs |
| 26 Apr | KKR | Pune | 182/5 | 184/3 | Lost by 7 wkts |
| 29 Apr | RCB | Pune | 157/3 | 96/9 | Won by 61 runs |
| 1 May | Gujarat Lions | Pune | 167/5 | 161 | Won by 5 wkts |
| 3 May | KKR | Kolkata | 158/6 | 155/8 | Won by 4 wkts |
| 6 May | SRH | Hyderabad | 148/8 | 136/9 | Won by 12 runs |
| 12 May | DD | Delhi | 161/7 | 168/8 | Lost by 7 runs |
| 14 May | KXIP | Pune | 78/1 | 73 | Won by 9 wkts |
| 16 May | MI (Q1) | Mumbai | 162/4 | 142/9 | Won by 20 runs |
| 21 May | MI (Final) | Hyderabad | 128/6 | 129/8 | Lost by 1 run |
Pune won nine of 14 league matches. Eight of their nine league wins came from the 16 April Bengaluru game onwards, and they finished second on 18 points, behind Mumbai's 20 and ahead of Sunrisers (17) and Kolkata (16).
Top run-scorers
| Batter | Inns | Runs | Balls | Avg | SR | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Smith | 15 | 472 | 387 | 39.3 | 122.0 | 12 |
| Rahul Tripathi | 14 | 391 | 267 | 27.9 | 146.4 | 17 |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 16 | 382 | 323 | 25.5 | 118.3 | 9 |
| Manoj Tiwary | 13 | 324 | 236 | 32.4 | 137.3 | 11 |
| Ben Stokes | 11 | 316 | 221 | 31.6 | 143.0 | 15 |
| MS Dhoni | 15 | 290 | 250 | 26.4 | 116.0 | 16 |
The most revealing column is strike rate. Smith and Rahane, the top-order anchors, scored at around 120. The runs that won matches came quicker, from Tripathi at the top and Stokes and Tiwary in the middle. Dhoni hit 16 sixes, second in the squad only to Tripathi's 17, despite a strike rate of 116.
Top wicket-takers
| Bowler | Mat | Overs | Runs | Wkts | Avg | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaydev Unadkat | 12 | 45.5 | 322 | 24 | 13.4 | 7.03 |
| Imran Tahir | 12 | 47.0 | 369 | 18 | 20.5 | 7.85 |
| Ben Stokes | 12 | 44.0 | 316 | 12 | 26.3 | 7.18 |
| Dan Christian | 13 | 40.0 | 298 | 11 | 27.1 | 7.45 |
| Shardul Thakur | 12 | 38.1 | 315 | 11 | 28.6 | 8.25 |
| Washington Sundar | 10 | 30.0 | 185 | 8 | 23.1 | 6.17 |
Unadkat's 24 wickets were second in the 2017 season only to Bhuvneshwar Kumar's 26, at an average of 13.4. Sundar's economy rate of 6.17 is the most underrated number in the table: a 17-year-old off-spinner conceded barely a run a ball across 30 overs.
Head-to-head with the champions
| 2017 meeting | Venue | Result |
|---|---|---|
| League, 6 April | Pune | Pune won by 7 wickets |
| League, 24 April | Mumbai | Pune won by 3 runs |
| Qualifier 1, 16 May | Mumbai | Pune won by 20 runs |
| Final, 21 May | Hyderabad | Mumbai won by 1 run |
Pune beat Mumbai in their first three meetings of 2017, two of them at the Wankhede, and still did not win the season.
Legacy Impact: What Pune 2017 Means Today
The franchise ended; its people did not
Chennai and Rajasthan came back in 2018 and Pune's licence ended with them. Dhoni went back to Chennai as captain and won the 2018 title in Chennai's first season back, the season described in our CSK return-from-ban deep dive. Pune's year without the captaincy was the only gap in a captaincy career that runs from 2008 into the 2020s.
Several of Pune's 2017 players are still around. Rahane captained Kolkata in the 2026 season, and Tripathi was also in Kolkata's 2026 squad. Sundar, the 17-year-old of the Wankhede qualifier, is a Gujarat Titans all-rounder. Unadkat is at Sunrisers, Ferguson at Punjab, and Thakur at Mumbai, the side that beat them by a run. Dhoni was still in Chennai's squad in 2026. The RPSG Group came back to the IPL too: it bought Lucknow Super Giants, whose "Super Giants" name echoes Pune's, when the league expanded in 2022.
What a model would have seen
Pune's 2017 is a useful lesson for anyone who builds forecasts. On season evidence, Pune were the better side against Mumbai: three wins from three, including a 20-run qualifier win. A low-scoring one-off final, settled by a single run, is closer to a coin toss than any record suggests. CricMind's Oracle is built around that kind of humility. Recent form is weighted heavily but never absolutely, every call carries a confidence figure, and every result is graded publicly on the leaderboard, so a run like Pune's three straight wins against Mumbai moves the number without turning it into a certainty.
The template it left behind
Pune's 2017 showed a winning IPL team did not need a superstar attack. Unadkat, Thakur, Christian and a teenaged Sundar were cheap and unglamorous, and together they bowled Mumbai out of Qualifier 1 and held them to 129 in the final. The defeat came from the batting, not the bowling: in the final Pune made 128 from their 20 overs, barely more than a run a ball. That is still the most common way IPL finals are lost.
Three Takeaways
- The captaincy change was vindicated, and the trophy still went elsewhere. Smith top-scored with 472 runs and led a side that had finished seventh in 2016 to second place and a final, while Dhoni contributed 290 runs, 16 sixes and the match-winning 61 not out against Sunrisers. Pune lost the final by one run anyway.
- The bowling was the real story. Unadkat's 24 wickets at 13.4, his 6 May hat-trick, and Sundar's 3/16 in the qualifier did more to carry Pune to the final than any batter.
- Beating the champions three times in a season is not the same as beating them in the final. Pune went 3-0 against Mumbai in 2017 and lost the only game that decided the title.
FAQ
Did Rising Pune Supergiant ever win the IPL?
No. Rising Pune Supergiant played only two seasons, 2016 and 2017. They finished seventh in 2016 and reached the 2017 final, which they lost to Mumbai Indians by one run at Hyderabad on 21 May 2017.
Why was MS Dhoni removed as Pune captain in 2017?
The franchise named Steve Smith captain on 19 February 2017 after a 2016 season in which Pune won five of 14 matches. Dhoni had already stepped down as India's limited-overs captain in January 2017. He stayed in the side as wicketkeeper and scored 290 runs in 2017.
Who scored the most runs for Pune in IPL 2017?
Steve Smith, with 472 runs in 15 innings at a strike rate of 122.0. Rahul Tripathi was second with 391 runs at 146.4, and Ajinkya Rahane third with 382.
Who took the hat-trick for Pune in IPL 2017?
Jaydev Unadkat, in the final over against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Hyderabad on 6 May 2017. He dismissed Bipul Sharma, Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, conceded no runs in the over, and finished with 5/30.
How did Pune lose the 2017 IPL final?
Chasing 130, Pune needed 11 off the last over from Mitchell Johnson. Manoj Tiwary hit a four and was then caught, Steve Smith was caught next ball, and with three needed off the last ball Dan Christian ran two and Washington Sundar was run out going for the third. Mumbai won by one run.
How old was Washington Sundar in the 2017 IPL?
He was 17. In Qualifier 1 against Mumbai at the Wankhede he took 3/16 in four overs and was player of the match. Across the season he went at 6.17 an over.
Why did Rising Pune Supergiant stop playing in the IPL?
The franchise was created as a two-season replacement while Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended for 2016 and 2017. When both returned in 2018, Pune's place in the league ended.
Match and player figures in this article come from Cricsheet ball-by-ball records of the 2017 season.