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The Sahara Pune Warriors, one of the two new teams to enter the fray in the IPL, open their campaign on Sunday at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. Their opponents would be the Adam Gilchrist - led Kings XI Punjab, a side which looks a little thin on resources and Pune would hope to make the most of it! Newbies Pune Warriors rocked the Kings XI in their IPL opener as they beat the Punjab outfit by 7 wickets after restricting the latter for just 112. The Warriors bowled exceptionally on a quick pitch with young Srikanth Wagh picking up 3 wickets on the franchise's IPL debut. He was well supported by Alfonso Thomas who picked up 2 key wickets with the new ball. Ryan McLaren gave Punjab something to defend scoring a fine half century but Pune attacked from the onset despite losing the influential Graeme Smith on the very first ball of their innings. Handy efforts from Mithun Manhas, Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh took Pune home in just the 14th over as they recorded a crushing win.

Pune Warriors were playing their debut match in IPL against a completely altered Kings XI Punjab team. The Warriors bagged former Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh in the 2011 Player Auction, and the World Cup's Player of the Tournament led his new team out against his former employers. The Warriors put out a well balanced side with Graeme Smith, Jesse Ryder, Wayne Parnell and Alfonso Thomas being the overseas player in the side.

Punjab looked devoid of any real local talent and the weight of the team rested on the shoulders of the Australian openers - Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh. Ryan McLaren and Nathan Rimmington were the two other overseas players alongside the two left handers from Down Under. Gilchrist won the toss and decided to bat despite the grass cover on the DY Patil pitch. Yuvraj Singh on the other hand seemed contended to bowl first as he hadn't played on the Navi Mumbai ground before.

The grass on the pitch, as predicted by Gilchrist, did affect the match as the Punjab top order crumbled to 9 for 4 even before the fourth over had been bowled. Punjab lost a wicket in each of the first four overs to two bowlers who were practically new kids on the block. Gilchrist walked after he feathered a short ball in the first over from South African seamer Alfonso Thomas while Marsh perfectly timed a ball on leg stump to short fine-leg in the second over bowled by Srikanth Wagh. Paul Valtahaty followed in the third over and Dinesh Karthik made a seven ball duck when he too departed in the 4th over. With even the powerplay yet to finish, Punjab seemed to be praying for the interval to arrive sooner.

Sunny Singh hit a couple of boundaries to add something to the scoreline and in partnership with Abhishek Nayar began the damage control exercise. Their partnership seemed to be going pretty well when a mix up led to Sunny's run out and Punjab lost half their side with just 36 on board. Ryan McLaren joined Nayar and had to survive the Pune onslaught. Nayar (12) succumbed to the pressure and fell in the 9th over as Ryder bowled a wicket maiden. Punjab had their hopes on McLaren and Piyush Chawla now to atleast get them through the 20 overs. The batsmen decided not to take any undue risks with the spinners operating and tried to just play through the overs.

McLaren hit a couple of boundaries to give the score a lift but Chawla (15) couldn't handle the pace of the pitch and skied a delivery from Wagh which was caught by Robin Uthappa. McLaren was the only one to have measured the conditions well and tried his best to give his team a score enough to put up a fight. Runs were hard to come even in the later overs but McLaren broke the shackles with a huge six in the 19th over. McLaren's efforts yielded 15 runs in that over, the best in the innings by far, taking them above 100. McLaren gave the innings another boost in the last over hitting a couple of boundaries and getting to a well deserved half century. Punjab ended the innings with 112 and with a glimmer of hope and momentum in their favour.

Punjab was handed a perfect start by paceman Praveen Kumar as he picked up the scalp of former South African skipper Graeme Smith with the very first ball of the innings. The Punjab bowlers were unable to deal further blows though as Jesse Ryder and Mithun Manhas took the bowlers to the dry cleaners with some explosive hitting. Nathan Rimmington, on his IPL debut, bowled fairly well but wasn't good enough considering the frugality of the target had to be defended. Ryan McLaren was taken for plenty in his first over and Manhas hit a mighty six off Piyush Chawla to end the power play strongly for Pune.

Ryder and Manhas were going all guns blazing and were in a hurry to finish the match, bringing up their 50 partnership in the 7th over. Chawla was straight away replaced by Nayar who took the wicket of Manhas with a gorgeous outswinger which the batsmen edged to Gilchrist when on 35. Ryder followed suit as he was dismissed by McLaren soon after for 31, leaving Pune at 68/3.

Punjab would have sensed the opportunity to mount a comeback, but they were let down by their fielding as they dropped two easy chances. Robin Uthappa was put down at mid-off and Dinesh Karthik dropped Yuvraj in the slips soon after to end any chance of a revival. The Pune Warriors made few mistakes after that and they took their offence to the next level. Uthappa, who likes to finish with a flurry, hit two crowd pleasing maximums to get the fans on their feet. Yuvraj joined the act by hitting a six himself. He finished the match against his former team in style with a boundary backward of point to give the infant franchise a fairytale victory.

The Pune Warriors have gone to the top of the table after today’s big win and will look to notch up more points when they play their next game at the same venue against the other new team in the IPL, the Kochi Tuskers Kerala. The Tuskers had a nervy beginning on Saturday in their loss to Bangalore but would surely give their fellow rookie team a greater cause for concern. Punjab seem favourites for the wooden spoon now with their harrowing performance. But the past IPL seasons have shown us that a single win can soon turn into a streak, which could alter the fortunes of any team. No one would know that better than Punjab skipper Adam Gilchrist, who has the uncanny ability to get the most out of an ordinary bunch of players. Kings XI Punjab will be hoping that that is the case when they take on the defending champions the Chennai Super Kings in Mohali in their next game.

Teams:

Pune Warriors: G Smith, M Manhas, J Ryder, M Mishra, Y Singh, R Uthappa, S Wagh, W Parnell, R Sharma, M Kartik, A Thomas

Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh, S Singh, P Valtahaty, D Karthik, A Nayar, P Kumar, P Chawla, R McLaren, N Rimmington, B Bhatt

Mini Scorecard:

Kings XI Punjab 112/8 in 20 overs (5.6 runs per over)
R McLaren   50(42) S Wagh   3-16
P Chawla   15(28) A Thomas   2-27

Pune Warriors 113/3 in 13.1 overs (8.58 runs per over)
M Manhas   35(32) R McLaren   1-26
J Ryder    31(17) A Nayar    1-27

Pune Warriors win by 7 wickets with 6.5 overs to spare

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File Photograph Copyright: Michael Henn

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