Tag IPL-2012

Pune Warriors made their IPL debut last year, won a few games, but didn't make very many fans. This year, appointing no-nonsense Sourav Ganguly as captain, bounding individuals as a team, they seem to have found that extra edge with which they cut out defending Champions Chennai Super Kings today and went upto the top of the points table..

Coming into this match after rsgistering second highest chase in tournament ever, Chennai batted conservatively on a flat deck at Sahara stadium today, leaving more than a hope for home team. Jesse Ryder navigated Warriors with his highest scorein IPL while Steven Smith provided the knock-out punch. here's how the story unfolded.

It was a good toss to win for CSK captain MS Dhoni and once again, Franois du Plessis provided them a free-flowing start. Murali Vijay couldn't re-invent his form but he stuck around for a while to construct 43 runs opening stand. du Plessis was stumped trying to up the ante but platform was firmly set for Chennai's middle order to fire. Surprizingly, captain MS Dhoni ate up 28 balls for his 26 runs and hence, despite Ravindra Jadeja's explosive knock, Pune managed to keep their target below 8 runs an over.

The move to send Robin Uthappa as opener with Jesse Ryder worked for Warriors as he responded well to Ryder's calls and added 31 runs from first 3 overs. Sourav Ganguly knocked around for a while setting the platform for the chase but match got interesting when Marlon Samuels tried to do a MS Dhoni, batting over-cautiously. Thankfully, he got out, making way for Steven Smith who got off the mark with a six and continued to take pressure off Ryder. Left and right hand combination kept the asking rate within grasp and another blunder was made by CSK skipper to bowl the last over with Yo Mahesh who was playing first match for his new franchise. 10 runs required, Smith smashed a four and a six to finish the match in a jiffy.

Jesse Ryder was named man of the match for top scoring among both the sides.

Chennai Super Kings innings (elected to bat)
Batsman		R	B	4s	6s
Franois du Plessis	st Uthappa b Sharma	43	33	5	2
Murali Vijay	c Dinda b Mathews	8	11	0	0
Suresh Raina	c Smith b Sharma	20	19	2	0
MS Dhoni	c Karthik b Dinda	26	28	1	0
Ravindra Jadeja	c Smith b Nehra	44	26	4	2
Albie Morkel	not out	3	3	0	0
Dwayne Bravo	not out	5	2	1	0
Subramaniam Badrinath
Nuwan Kulasekara
R Ashwin
Yo Mahesh
Extra :	6 (lbye=1, wides=3, noballs=2)
Total :	155 runs in 20 overs for 5 wicket. RR = ( 7.75 ).
Fall of wickets : 1-43 (Vijay, 6.1 ov), 2-67 (du Plessis, 9.1 ov), 3-86 (Raina, 11.3 ov), 4-147 (Dhoni, 18.6 ov), 5-148 (Jadeja, 19.2 ov)

Bowler	Overs	Maiden	Runs	W	Extra
Murali Vijay	3	0	18	0
Ashok Dinda	4	0	30	1	2 no balls
Ashish Nehra	4	0	43	1	1 wide
Rahul Sharma	3	0	16	2
Marlon Samuels	4	0	29	0	1 wide
Angelo Mathews	2	0	18	1

Pune Warriors innings (target = 156 from 20 overs)
Batsman		R	B	4s	6s
Robin Uthappa	run out (Bravo + Kulasekara)	10	7	0	1
Jesse Ryder	not out	73	56	7	1
Sourav Ganguly	run out (Jadeja + Ashwin)	16	16	1	0
Marlon Samuels	b Mahesh	8	15	0	0
Steven Smith	not out	44	22	4	3
Angelo Mathews
Mithun Manhas
Rahul Sharma
Murali Karthik
Ashoke Dinda
Ashish Nehra
Extra :	5 (lbyes=2, wides=3)
Total :	156 runs in 19.2 overs for 3 wicket. RR = ( 8.06 ).
Fall of wickets : 1-31 (Uthappa, 2.6 ov), 2-65 (Ganguly, 8.2 ov), 3-90 (Samuels, 12.4 ov)

Bowler	Overs	Maiden	Runs	W	Extra
Nuwan Kulasekara	4	0	38	0	1 wide
Albie Morkel	2	0	22	0	1 wide
R Ashwin	4	0	19	0
Dwayne Bravo	3	0	31	0	1 wide
Suresh Raina	4	0	22	0
Yo Mahesh	2.2	0	22	1