IPL 2013: Manish Pandey, Aaron Finch lift Pune Warriors to 170/4 against KKR

Manish Pandey scored his first half-century of the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) before captain Aaron Finch fell two runs short of his fourth of the season as the Pune Warriors India posted a competitive total of 170 for four against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Manish Pandey scored 66 off 41 balls, including eight fours and a six © IANS

By Jaideep Vaidya
 
Ranchi: May 15, 2013

Manish Pandey scored his first half-century of the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) before captain Aaron Finch fell two runs short of his fourth of the season as the Pune Warriors India posted a competitive total of 170 for four against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

It’s been exactly a month to the day when Pune won their last match this season against the Chennai Super Kings, and their batsmen have done a good job today to put them in a good position to end their barren run.

After losing the toss and being put in to bat on a good surface, Finch and Robin Uthappa got Pune off to a flying start, reaching 39 in the first four overs. But the pair could not build it into a big partnership, as has been the norm this season more often than not.

Uthappa slapped a couple of sixes over deep mid-wicket and long-on and, as always, looked very promising. But his extravagance got the better of him against the wily spin of Sachithra Senanayake. It wasn’t the best of balls that claimed the wicket — pitched short and begging to be spanked over mid-wicket. Uthappa went for it, but completely missed the line and could only manage to chop it back onto his stumps.
 
Pune’s run-rate slipped down to around six an over after the wicket as Manish Pandey joined Finch in the middle. The duo took a few overs for their partnership to settle before giving the spectators behind long-on and deep mid-wicket some catching practice in overs 10 and 11, bowled by Jacques Kallis and Rajat Bhatia, where 32 runs were stolen.
 
Lakshmipathy Balaji then shattered the woodwork of Finch after the Australian went for a loose pull and missed the length of the ball. Another couple of quiet overs were to follow before Pandey hit Kallis for three consecutive boundaries to get PWI going again. The 23-year-old, who had scored the first century of the IPL back in 2008, then got to his seventh fifty of the tournament and first this season with a dapper cut over the in-field to the third-man fence in the 18th over of the innings, bowled by Balaji, of which Pune scored 18 runs.
 
Yuvraj Singh chipped in with a couple of sixes over his favourite deep midwicket-long on area as Pune reached a good total with 58 coming off the last five overs. Pandey was run out in the last over for 66 that came off 41 balls, including eight fours and a six.

Kallis was the most expensive of the KKR bowlers, leaking 48 runs in his four overs. Balaji was another one who crossed 40, while Senanayake was the pick of the lot with one for 22.
 
Brief scores:
 
Pune Warriors India 170 for 4 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 66, Aaron Finch 48; Sachithra Senanayake 1 for 22) vs Kolkata Knight Riders.

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