By Jamie Alter
Pune Warriors began their IPL journey with a win over a revamped Kings XI Punjab, giving their captain Yuvraj Singh reason to smile after an utterly forgettable 2010 IPL season.
Published: Apr 10, 2011, 10:59 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 10, 2011, 10:59 PM (IST)
Alonso Thomas of Pune Warriors India in action
By Jamie Alter
Mumbai: Apr 10, 2011
Pune Warriors began their IPL journey with a win over a revamped Kings XI Punjab, giving their captain Yuvraj Singh reason to smile after an utterly forgettable 2010 IPL season. The match itself was over as a contest when KXIP were reduced to 45 for six, and even though they were revived by Ryan McLaren a target of 113 was never likely to trouble Pune. They did lose their out-of-form opener Graeme Smith first ball, but Jesse Ryder and Mithun Manhas played a fine hand with a partnership of 60 in just over seven overs before Yuvraj and Robin Uthappa finished the chase with a whopping 41 deliveries remaining.
Alfonso Thomas, the South African-born Somerset allrounder, found success in the first over when Adam Gilchrist walked after gloving an attempted pull shot. Shrikant Wagh, given the responsibility of sharing the new ball ahead of Wayne Parnell, struck in the next over when Shaun Marsh flicked a full ball to short fine leg and was excellent held by Rahul Sharma. Five for two was a shaky start, but it was just getting started.
Four runs later, KXIP lost two wickets. Paul Valthaty slashed Thomas to Ryder at point, after which Dinesh Karthik threw the bat at width and was held at deep backward point. The panic had set in, as evident by the fifth wicket to fall. A mindless piece of running from Sunny Singh, who charged off without paying heed to Abhishek Nayar’s refusal, saw him halfway down the pitch as Uthappa collected the throw at the other end.
McLaren, a bowling allrounder, entered with KXIP in crisis at 36 for five. He didn’t have license to go hammer and tongs at the bowling, but managed to gauge the nature of the pitch while ensuring runs didn’t dry up. Twenty-four deliveries separated his first two boundaries, during which McLaren played out nine consecutive dot balls and scored nine singles.
With Piyush Chawla he added 35 for the seventh wicket – the highest of the innings – and 22 for the eighth with Praveen Kumar. The 19th over provided McLaren the opportunity to swing his arms and he collected ten runs off Thomas, before moving to fifty with two boundaries off Parnell in the 20th over.
After losing Smith, driving Praveen Kumar to McLaren at cover, Ryder propelled PW forward with a scything cut shot, before he helped Nathan Rimmington to fine leg with a one-legged whip. Manhas also clipped Rimmington for four and then used his feet to create room to slap Praveen Kumar over cover and cut McLaren over point. When Piyush Chawla came on, Manhas took him for ten runs including six over extra cover.
Ryder and Manhas were keen to keep attacking and thus both fell edging wild drives to Gilchrist. Sixty-eight for three brought together Yuvraj and Uthappa, Pune’s Indian superstars, and the pair set about finishing the job with minimal fuss. Two simple catches went down in consecutive overs, and Uthappa rubbed it in with two glorious shots down the ground before he and Yuvraj each took a six off the 13th over, bowled by Praveen.
Appropriately, an in-form Yuvraj hit the winning runs in front of his new team’s adopted home, the DY Patil Stadium.
Brief Scores: KXIP 112 for 8 in 20 overs (Ryan McLaren 51*; Shrikant Wagh 3 for 16, Alfonso Thomas 2 for 27, Jesse Ryder 1 for 9, Wayne Parnell 1 for 20) lost to PWI 113 for 3 in 13.1 overs (Mithun Manhas 35, Jesse Ryder 31, Robin Uthappa 22*, Yuvraj Singh 21*; Ryan McLaren 1 for 26, Abhishek Nayar 1 for 27) by seven wickets.
Man of the Match: Shrikant Wagh
(Jamie Alter is a freelance cricket writer, having worked at ESPNcricinfo and All Sports Magazine. His first book, The History of World Cup Cricket, is out now. His twitter feed is @jamie_alter)
Pictures © Getty Images
