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.

However, controversies arose over holding 2016 IPL games in Maharashtra due to water usage of the cricket stadiums during severe drought and the Bombay High Court ordered all matches in May to be shifted out of the state.

[11] [12][13] The Rising Pune Supergiant made an excellent start to the season, convincingly winning their first game against the defending champions, Mumbai Indians, by 9 wickets.

[14] 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.

[20][21] 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.

[33][34][35] 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,[36] 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 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.

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.