Pune Warriors win the battle of IPL debutants
Pune Warriors defeated Kochi Tuskers Kerala by four wickets in the battle of the Indian Premier League’s new teams at the D.Y. Patil Sports Academy here Wednesday.
The Warriors made it two wins from two in their debut season after successfully chasing down a target of 149 with seven balls to spare.
Mohnish Mishra struck a breathtaking 37 not out off 21 balls swinging the game in his side’s favour after Kochi had fought back well when part-time off-spinner Brad Hodge removed Mithun Manhas and Yuvraj Singh in quick succession by reducing the hosts to 73 for four.
Mishra and Robin Uthappa (31 off 31 balls) added some valuable 42 runs for the fifth wickets to seal the match in Pune’s favour. Mishra took the first five balls of Muttiah Muralitharan’s penultimate over of the match for 16 runs as the Tuskers crashed to their second successive defeat.
Left-handed openers Jesse Ryder (17) and Graeme Smith (24) then laid a solid platform for the Warriors.
Earlier in the day, Mahela Jayawardene’s men were pegged back in the very first over of the match when Somerset seamer Alfonso Thomas dismissed Brendon McCullum for a golden duck. Fellow opener V.V.S. Laxman also failed to trouble the scorers, the India batsman becoming the first of three wickets to end up in Wayne Parnell’s end column.
Thomas reduced Kochi to 24-4 as Parthiv Patel and skipper Jayawardene fell in the space of 13 runs.
It was a brisk 88-run stand between Ravindra Jadeja (47) and Brad Hodge (39) helped boost Kochi towards a competitive total.