Pune Warriors playing at home chose to bat, not reading their own pitch correctly. Otherwise what else would be the justification of them not reaching even 100 runs!! Kings XI charged up in their opening match won with 8 overs to spare going to the top of the league for 4 hours, as the next match winner would be the leader.
Match Facts
- Debutant Manan Vohra was declared MOM for his 28-ball 43 runs in a chase of 100 runs.
50+ wicket takers in IPL: 74 (Chawla), 55 (Praveen Kumar)
Final Score: 99/9 (PWI), 100/2 (KXIP)
6 overs: 24/2 (PWI), 56/1 (KXIP)
10 overs 38/5 (PWI), 84/2 (KXIP)
50 runs: 12.5 ov (PWI), 4.3 ov (KXIP)
100 runs: 12.2 ov (KXIP)
6s/4s: 1/10 (PWI), 1/14 (KXIP)
Best Bowling: 12/1 in 2 overs (Mathews) (PWI), 12/1 (Harris), 16/1 (Awana), 19/2 (Mahmood), 19/1 (Chawla) (KXIP)
Best Batting: 25* (Abhishek Nayar) (PWI), 43* (Manan VOhra) (KXIP)
Warriors Innings
With Yuvraj Singh not playing due to strain, Warriors were affected would be the least to express for the already depleted looking side. Manish Pandey was the first Indian to hit an IPL century. But since then he has been mediocre and getting down. Praveen Kumar sent him on duck. Suman, replacement of Yuvraj, joined Uthappa. Both continued till 5th over against Praveen and Ryan Harris. But in the 5th over arrival of Azhar Mahmood resulted in the wicket of Suman (6 runs, 14 balls, 1 boundary). Score read 21/2 after 5 overs. Samuels joined Uthappa, and Awana started what was going to result into a tight spell of 16/1 in 4 overs. In the 8th over Samuesl (3 runs in 9 balls) was run out on a very good throw by Mandeep Singh. Score had reached only 29/3 after 8th over. Another batsmen struggling with form, Ross Taylor arrived, and with that Chawla was introduced in 9th over, who immediately bowled Uthappa (19 runs, 23 balls, 2 boundaries). He was again left the crease without having Plan B. How many more times he wants to leave crease and get out.
That brought the captain Mathews on crease. But the last ball of 10th over saw him stumped by Gilchrist on the bowling of Awana. He could score only 4 runs in the 4 balls he faced. After 10 overs Warriors were 38/5, the lowest score in 10 overs by any team in this season. The millionaire Abhishek Nayar joined Taylor. They played 3.3 overs together when in the 14th over an exceptional catch by Gurkeerat Singh on the bowling of Praveen Kumar saw Taylor back to crease. He had scored only 15 runs on the 19 balls he faced, with a boundary. Score read 53/6. Mitch Marsh again tried to attack, as in the first match he did, hitting a six and boundary in the last over of Praveen Kumar. But in the next over Harries bowled him and score read 80/7 after 17th over. Marsh scored 15 runs in 8 balls. B Kumar (8 runs) and Rahul Sharma went in the last over. Warriors set 100 runs to win.
Harris and Azhar Mahmood when brought to bowl the last 4 overs were competing with Dale Steyn (11/3) for the best economic spell of IPL 6. But while Mahmood finished with 19/2, Harris had 12/1 in their 4 overs. Praveen (31/2), Awana (16/1) and Chawla (19/1) all contributed to the tremendous effort.
Kings XI Chase
Kings XI were hungry not only to win but were looking towards the Net Run Rate also. They lost only Gilchrist (15 runs, 10 balls, 2 boundaries and a six), and Mandeep Singh (31 runs, 26 balls, 4 boundaries). Debutant Manan Vohra (unbeaten 43, 28 balls, 7 boundaries that included 5 consecutive boundaries) and David Hussey (unbeaten 8, 11 balls, 1 boundary) took them home in 12.2 overs.
Mathews (12/1) and Rahul Sharma (20/1) were the successful bowlers.
Surprise MOM
In a low score of 99 runs, debutant Vohra was selected Man of the Match for his unbeaten 43 runs. Surprising that none of the bowlers who were selected player of the match because none took 4 or 5 wickets. Why is economy and 2 wicket spell not important for the IPL Committee who decides MOM!! Only they will know the answer.
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