By Suneer Chowdhary
They are the two new teams to be added to the initial eight in the Indian Premier League. However, the Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Kerala played much better than one would have expected the debutants to; Pune brushed the Kings XI Punjab out while Kochi lost narrowly to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Published: Apr 12, 2011, 08:07 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 12, 2011, 08:07 PM (IST)
Yuvraj Singh,captain of Pune Warriors during a practise session
By Suneer Chowdhary
Mumbai: Apr 13, 2011
They are the two new teams to be added to the initial eight in the Indian Premier League. However, the Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Kerala played much better than one would have expected the debutants to; Pune brushed the Kings XI Punjab out while Kochi lost narrowly to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
So, when the two meet in the tenth game of this season’s Indian Premier League at Pune’s adopted home, the Dr. DY Patil stadium, the expectations to dish out a quality game will be high.
Pune were undoubtedly assisted by the almost clueless Punjab batting. However, credit must be accorded to the way in which the Warriors bowlers bowled; Alfonso Thomas was nippy despite his age while Shrikanth Wagh went on to win a surprise man-of-the-match award for his three-wicket haul.
The star of the show, though, was Wayne Parnell, who got the ball to talk in a language that not too many batsmen understood. It cut both ways, there was considerable bounce and for someone to sit out the entire World Cup and come here and deliver from the word go was creditable.
Pune has a strong batting order and while Graeme Smith isn’t in the best of forms, the rest of the order looks as delicious as it can. How the likes of Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa and the captain Yuvaj Singh go against the pace of S Sreesanth and RP Singh could be the highlight of the game.
Speaking of which, the two quick bowlers looked rusty in the first game. In the six overs that they sent down together, they conceded only 57 and captain Mahela Jayawardene’s lack of trust in them was revealed when he preferred a first-timer in Raiphi Gomez to bowl the crucial 18th over of the innings. The move backfired, 20 came off it and the Royal Challengers had pipped the Tuskers to the post.
Not that they can be faulted much with the way that they batted. However, where Kochi will also look to improve from their previous performance is in the middle of the innings, where the likes of Jayawardene and Brad Hodge could not live up to the start provided by the pair of Brendon McCullum and VVS Laxman.
In terms of team changes, if Manish Pandey is fit, he will walk into the side in place of either Mohnish Mishra or Rahul Sharma. In all likelihood, Rahul Sharma’s ability to bowl spin will bail him out this time and he may get another go.
Kochi may be tempted to get in an extra spinner in place of one of the quick bowlers but they will do well to persist with the fast bowling options given the pitch at the Dr. DY Patil Stadium. As was evident from the first game here, bounce and lateral movement can be expected from the pitch and it could help both Sreesanth and RP Singh to get their bearing right.
Teams:
KTK (Probable): Brendon McCullum, VVS Laxman, Mahela Jayawardene (c), Brad Hodge, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, S Sreesanth, RP Singh, Muthiah Muralitharan, Vinay Kumar.
PWI (Probable): Graeme Smith, Jesse Ryder, Yuvraj Singh (c), Mithun Manhas, Robin Uthappa (wk), Manish Pandey, Rahul Sharma, Alfonso Thomas, Shrikanth Wagh, Wayne Parnell, Murali Kartik.
Time: 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here: @suneerchowdhary)
Pictures © Getty Images
