By Suneer Chowdhary
The Deccan Chargers and the Pune Warriors have taken a different path but got to the same destination. Noth teams need a miracle to have a chance of going through to the playoffs.
Published: May 09, 2011, 05:51 PM (IST)
Edited: May 09, 2011, 05:51 PM (IST)
Yuvraj Singh (C) will have to fire with his bat is Pune Warriors have to hold any chance of making it to the play-offs © AFP
By Suneer Chowdhary
Hyderabad: May 9, 2011
The Deccan Chargers and the Pune Warriors have taken a different path but got to the same destination. The Chargers have been erratic, won infrequently and are all but out of the competition with three wins from their ten games. The Pune Warriors won the first two and the previous one, losing seven in a row. They, much like the Chargers, need a miracle to have a chance of going through to the playoffs.
The one thing certain, though, when the two sides, the Deccan Chargers and the Pune Warriors India play each other at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Uppal, is that the losing team will definitely be out of the competition. They will not be left with even a mathematical chance of making it.
Not that the two sides, Deccan and Pune will be under any great illusions. The cricket on display from both has been poor, almost devoid of a plan or motivation and that has reflected in the results. Both have a common bane, their middle-order has rarely fired and both have been besieged by some strange decision-making processes.
Pune has shuffled around with their batting order but potentially, their best batsman has rarely batted at four. Only in the previous game against Punjab it looked like the order had been corrected with Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj at three and four respectively.
Kumar Sangakkara also looked to have overcome an overbearing issue – Cameron White’s form. White was given the sack and JP Duminy continued in the middle-order, as a result of which, the side got their batting mojo back.
Sourav Ganguly’s absence from the Pune line-up has been puzzling. Here was a man selected and made the vice-captain of the side and he is yet to make it to the playing eleven. Deccan have had their own stunners – Sunny Sohal, who has had a good game or two at the opening slot was pushed down the order and DB Ravi Teja made to open the innings.
There is a good chance that Ganguly will make a return to IPL this game but that is what most had thought in the previous two games as well. On the other hand, the Chargers may bring back Pragyan Ojha or Manpreet Gony in place of Ishan Malhotra, who was savaged by Virender Sehwag.
Teams:
DC (Probable): Shikhar Dhawan, Sunny Sohal, Kumar Sangakkara (c&wk), JP Duminy, Dan Christian, Bharat Chipli, DB Ravi Teja, Ishant Sharma, Manpreet Gony, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn
PWI (Probable): Manish Pandey, Jesse Ryder, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh (c), Callum Ferguson, Robin Uthappa (wk), Mithun Manhas, Rahul Sharma, Alfonso Thomas, Murali Kartik, Jerome Taylor
Time: 16.00 local (10.30 GMT)
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here: @suneerchowdhary)
