IPL: Pune Warriors Suffer Their Eight Consecutive Defeat

The hapless Pune Warriors team suffered yet another defeat, this time at the hands of the Rajasthan Royals. The 45 run win keeps RR's hopes of making it to the play-off alive, and Pune's pursuit of the wooden spoon on track too.

Dravid and Rahane started their innings in typical steady fashion, mixed with some delicious shots. Dravid's departure brought Watson to the crease, and he wasted no time in punishing anything loose. The trademark slog sweeps came out and in the company of Rahane the run rate started bloating. The two of them shared a 97 run partnership in 10 overs. Rahane approached closer to the orange cap with 61 runs, and Watto got to 58 with the aid of 4 huge sixes. Barring Ashish Nehra who took 3 for 23 in his four overs, none of the bowlers impressed.

In reply, Pune Warriors had as disastrous a start as they could have ever imagined. The unorthodox actioned offspinner Chandila opened the bowling and dismissed Ryder and Ganguly off the last two balls to leave PW tottering at 3 for 2 in the first over. He then got Uthappa stumped off the first ball of his second over, to complete the hat-trick. He inflicted even more damage by having Anustup Majumdar caught and bowled. At 26-4 in 5 overs, the match was almost over, and what followed was slow, painful death. Calum Fergusson, Steve Smith and Mathews kncoked the ball around, interspersed with a few boundaries.

The nature of loss should come as a big embarassment for the Ganguly led side, this being their eight defeat on the trot.