Pune's time to take forward steps

Pune Warriors started their campaign in IPL 2012 with an uplifting win against pre-tournament favourites, Mumbai Indians and followed it up with an easy win over Kings XI Punjab. But since then, they have played seven games and won only two, with a hat-trick of losses. Second from the bottom, Warriors still have a chance of qualifying for the play-off stage, but with just six games to go they will need to stay focussed.
Mumbai Indians have had five wins from nine games even though they haven't performed to their potential. Of all their big names, only Lasith Malinga has been consistent while Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh haven't fired. Rohit Sharma is the top-scorer in the line-up but his tournament tally is half that of Ajinkya Rahane's and he has given his wicket away easily in crunch situations. Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik, though, have shown signs of form after an indifferent start to the season. Mumbai Indians have often reiterated the importance of having Tendulkar at the top to provide stability. However, he has scored 94 runs in five games and Sourav Ganguly would hope to keep the pressure on him.

Michael Clarke made an impressive IPL debut in the last game and scored his runs at a good clip with proper cricketing shots, much like Rahane. Clarke's ability should relieve Robin Uthappa of the stabilising role, allowing him to take a more aggressive stance. In their bowling department, Warriors have missed Ashok Dinda as Ashish Nehra has been expensive as a death bowler.


Players to watch
Steven Smith is the second highest run-getter for Warriors this season with 267 runs at a strike rate of 159.88. While several other top run-scorers have faced more than 200 balls, Smith has only faced 167, highlighting that he could have a greater impact if he is given more time in the middle.
Ambati Rayudu has looked in good form in recent games. While his cameo in Mohali won the game for Mumbai Indians from a difficult position, his counter-attacking 62 in Delhi kept the team in hunt after the loss of early wickets. With an inconsistent top order, the responsibility will be again on him.

Stats and trivia
Mumbai Indians' average of 21.58 runs per wicket is the lowest in this IPL. Warriors are third from the top with an average of 27.05.
Mumbai Indians scored 101 against Warriors in their last match, the second-lowest score this season after their 92 all out against Delhi Daredevils.

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IPL 5: CSK batsmen hurting team's title defence

The fifth edition of the Indian Premier League has been a poor one for the defending champions Chennai Super Kings so far, who have performed below par despite having some big players in their ranks. Once touted as favourites to complete the hat-trick of the title, Chennai are fifth in the points table and on current form, it seems difficult for them to qualify for the play-offs.
The biggest worry for CSK has been the form of their batsmen. Murali Vijay has been the poorest of the lot and has been dropped from the team. He was the one of the key members that helped CSK win the last two edition of the IPL and MS Dhoni's team has missed him for sure. Apart from Faf du Plessis, none of the players so far have really shown the mettle and consistency.


But the inclusion of Michael Hussey following Australia's tour of the West Indies is definitely going to strengthen Chennai batting line-up. However, there is very little time for Hussey to settle down as the tournament has already reached its business end and he has to start performing from the word go. Subramaniam Badrinath is another player who has been wasted so far by Chennai team management as he is still struggling to get a fixed spot. At times he has been asked to open the innings while in other matches he has played lower down the order. That for sure is going to hurt any player's confidence.
Another thing that Chennai have been missing is runs from Suresh Raina's bat. Though he has become the first man to reach the 2000-run mark in the IPL, Raina has been poor in the tournament so far. Coming in at No.3, the left-hander has to play a very important role for the team, but so far he has just managed 197 runs at average 21.88 in nine innings and has failed to capitalise on the couple of starts he has go so far.
Dhoni's reluctance to bat higher up the order is also hurting the team's chances. Dhoni needs to bat at No.4 in the order to add some stability and consistency to the batting line-up. Dhoni has played a couple of good innings batting at this spot but the continuous shuffling in the batting order has also worked against them. Allrounders Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja have stood up to their task while bowling and fielding but have not performed with the bat so far.
Surely with six matches to be played, time is running out for Chennai to sort out their batting, and it seems an uphill task for CSK to defend their crown this time around.

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IPL 5: Nervous Punjab hold on to beat Ban

Kings XI Punjab kept their nerves towards the end of their chase to register a four-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in an Indian Premier League (IPL) nail-biter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. Chasing 159 to win, the visitors were on their way to an easy win at one time with just 13 runs needed to close out the match, but a flurry of wickets, especially three run-outs, took the match into the last over.
With five runs required in the last over to win, Piyush Chawla smashed Vinay Kumar for a six off the fifth ball to see his team home.


Nitin Saini (50), David Hussey (45) and Mandeep Singh (43) played crucial hands in the chase. This was Punjab’s second successive win and now they lie fourth in the standings with five wins in 10 matches, while Bangalore lost their second successive match to be 6th.
Punjab got off to a good start with Mandeep and Shaun Marsh adding 38 off 28 balls. Mandeep did the bulk of the scoring in a 38-run partnership that was ended by Andrew McDonald, who cleaned up Marsh for 8. Mandeep was impressive during his innings before being trapped in front of the stumps by K Appanna. His wicket gave Punjab some hope but Saini and captain Hussey were determined to take the team over the line, especially Saini who showed a lot of nous during his stay. He and Hussey added 73 to take the visitors within 13 runs of victory. But those 13 runs took a lot of getting with Saini falling to Zaheer Khan and the run-outs of Abhishek Nayar, Hussey and Azhar Mahmood.
Earlier, after being put into bat, Bangalore lost Mayank Agarwal early as Aussie Ryan Harris – playing his first match this season - sent his off-stump cartwheeling with only seven runs on the board. Virat Kohli joined Chris Gayle and began a partnership that at one time threatened to take the game away from the visitors. Parvinder Awana and Chawla in particular were at the receiving end as Gayle played some mutilating shots. Both added 119 runs off 83 balls as the team headed for a big total but Punjab’s Pakistani import Mahmood came back to end the West Indian’s innings with a well-aimed bouncer in the 16th over.
Gayle scored 71 off 42 balls with six boundaries and four sixes to take his IPL tally to 407 runs in nine matches this season. One of his sixes travelled 111 metres, an IPL 5 record. Chawla then got in on the act and accounted for Kohli in the next over. The India batsman made 45 off 42 balls and played a perfect foil to Gayle. The twin blow reined in the hosts’ innings. The Mahmood-led Punjab bowling came up trumps yielding just 36 runs in the last five overs. Mahmood, who also has the citizenship of England, sent back McDonald and AB de Villiers in the last over to restrict Bangalore to 158 for 5, which was at least 20 runs fewer.

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