When the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were handed a two-season ban from the IPL for illegal betting by their owners, Rising Pune Supergiants were one of two franchises chosen to take their place in 2016 and 2017. The Gujarat Lions were the other one.
Gujarat made it to the Playoffs in 2016, but Pune finished seventh out of eight teams. However, Pune were to enjoy much more success in 2017, despite making the controversial pre-season decision of replacing M.S. Dhoni with Steven Smith as captain and curious choice of removing the final 's' from the name of the team.
Featuring the likes of Ben Stokes – bought for a record fee for an overseas player at the time – and Imran Tahir, they finished the regular season in second place, and qualified for the playoffs.
They beat the Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1 to book their place in the final, where they met Mumbai again. When Mumbai could only manage 129/8 from their 20 overs, it looked like the IPL trophy might head to Pune for the first time, and they were comfortable after the powerplay.
However, overcautious batting in the middle of their innings proved to be their undoing, and they were left with 11 to win off the last over. Even that seemed within their grasp, but the loss of two key wickets meant that they lost by a run.
It was to be their last match in the IPL. They were then disbanded, because the IPL governing council had made it clear that the two new franchises would not be given an extension. If they were to return the following year, they would have to submit to a fresh bidding process.
At that time, the mood of the IPL was to stick to eight teams, because it would have increased the number of matches to 74, which they deemed unsustainable at the time. Since the two original franchises had served their two-year ban, they were reinstated,
It was by no means the end of IPL cricket for the owner, the Goenka Group. In October 2021, they bought another franchise and named them the Lucknow Super Giants. They have just taken their place in the expanded 2022 edition.