IPL: Pune Fall Short By 13 Runs Against Deccan

Deccan Chargers finally got moving on the score sheet, as they won their second match in the IPL this year. They beat the fast going off the track – Pune Warriors thanks to a superlative partnership between Sangakkara and White.

Winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Deccan got to the worst possible start when Parthiv Patel got bowled off the first ball itself. Shikhar Dhawan got not fare much better as he managed just 13 off 18 deliveries. Sangakkara who seemed to be low on confidence in the previous matches, decided to get back into the team, and started scrappily. Cameron White on the other hand started stroking the ball well right from the go. Sangakkara too got into his groove soon enough. And once the two decided to open their shoulders, it started raining fours and sixes. Sanga especially was near unstoppable, and showed his talent and ability to everyone – including himself. Theirs was a record breaking partnership of 157 runs, one which took the team to 186 runs, on a seemingly sluggish wicket. White finished with 74 in 45 deliveries. With the exception of Parnell and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, all the bowlers got pummelled, special treatment being reserved for Ganguly, who got hit for three consecutive sixes by White.

Pune too lost a wicket of the first ball, when Manish Pandey holed out to mid-on. Ganguly and the Aussie captain Clarke had a fruitful partnership of 90 runs in 11 overs as they set up a strong base to launch into an attack. Both the batsmen got out in the forties within a span off 4 deliveries. Thereafter, lusty hitting from Steve Smith could get the team through to the target as they were always behind the eight ball. Dale Steyn who was near unplayable one match earlier, got pummelled for 46 runs in his 4 overs. The rest of the bowlers however pulled in their weight, especially Amit Mishra put to rest his horrors of the previous match with a miserly three over spell. Pune finished 13 runs short of the target, and certainly need to have a relook at their batting order.