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Sourav Ganguly made his comeback to the Indian Premier League on Tuesday as he guided the Pune Warriors to their second consecutive win, this time against the Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad. Deccan had an excellent start batting first, but Pune pulled the game back with quick wickets and restricted them to just 136. Pune were coasting for most of their chase as the openers got off to a flyer before Dada provided the vital cool head in the middle that Pune have so desperately been missing with a run-a-ball 32. Though the Pune Warriors don’t have any chance to make it to the play-offs, they will be delighted to be putting some space between themselves and the bottom of the table.

Pune Warriors and Deccan Chargers were out of the tournament but it was important for both teams to finish the season on a high. Pune ended their 7 match losing streak at Mohali at the weekend, whereas Deccan were brutally assaulted by Virender Sehwag in their last game. The track at Hyderabad has always been great for run making and hence, Kumar Sangakkara had no hesitation in opting to bat first after he won the toss. The big news out in the middle was that Sourav Ganguly was given his first game this season and the crowd erupted as Yuvraj announced the Maharaj's debut for Pune. Deccan made a host of changes to their team bringing back Pragyan Ojha for Ishan Malhotra.

Two young bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Srikanth Wagh, opened the attack for Pune. Deccan persisted with Ravi Teja at the top of the order and the 23-year old Andhra lad didn’t disappoint, attacking both bowlers straight away. He punished Wagh with two consecutive boundaries in the 2nd over and looked in good touch taking a lion share of the early strike. Shikhar Dhawan got an early life when Wagh dropped a tough chance off South African seamer Wayne Parnell. Rahul Sharma the toast of IPL Season 4 was brought on inside the powerplay and Dhawan took the opportunity to smash the 24-year old leggie into the stands. Dhawan smashed another maximum, this time off Parnell as Deccan raced to 50 at the end of the powerplay.

The Pune skipper took the responsibility to get his team a breakthrough, and delivered as Dhawan top-edged one in the 7th over to fall for 24. Mitchell Marsh removed the other opener soon as Teja departed for a well compiled 30. Kumar Sangakkara and JP Duminy were entrusted with the responsibility of taking Deccan to a big score as the home side reached 72/2 at the half-way stage of the innings.

Rahul Sharma picked up yet another important wicket this season, getting rid of captain Sangakkara for just 12. Daniel Christian joined JP Duminy, and both batsmen looked to consolidate, but the run rate dipped with each passing over. The Chargers finally took the attack to Kumar and got some momentum going for the final part of the innings. Yuvraj though was bowling exceptionally and picked up his second wicket in the form of Christian (10). The 100 of the innings came up at the end of the 15th over as Yuvraj finished his spell with figures of 2 for 17.

Deccan's batsmen were unable to break free as the Pune bowlers squeezed in some tight overs. Bharat Chipli played some good strokes but Duminy was dealing only in singles. The South African's innings ended for a run-a-ball 30 in the penultimate over when he tried to clear the ropes. Mitchell Marsh ruined the innings completely picking up 2 more wickets in the same over and ended up picking up with 4 wickets in all. Dale Steyn struck a couple of boundaries in his 11 as Deccan finished with a modest 136 at the end of the 20 overs.

Jesse Ryder was in no mood to be watchful and took the attack to the Dale Steyn right away, smashing him for 15 in the first over itself. He followed it up with two consecutive boundaries off Ishant Sharma as the Pune Warriors raced to 24 in just 2 overs. Sangakkara decided to offer no more pace to the batsmen and tossed the ball to Pragyan Ojha. JP Duminy shared the new-ish ball from the other end and managed to keep the batsmen quiet. Sangakkara kept rotating his bowlers around as each of the first 6 overs were bowled by different bowlers. Pune though were off to a brilliant start, scoring 52 runs in the powerplay, leaving them in pole position to record an easy win.

Deccan finally got the breakthrough they so desperately needed in the 7th over as Ryder was bowled by Ojha for 35 (20b). The home team would have liked to apply some pressure but Manish Pandey didn’t let them get into their stride as he went after the spinners. Pandey smashed Duminy for 2 fours and a six in the 8th over as he ensured that the momentum stayed with the Warriors. Sourav Ganguly, who had joined Pandey after Ryder’s fall, als joined in on the action smashing Ishant over extra-cover with a trademark Ganguly stroke. Pandey was going all guns blazing but Amit Mishra halted his assault when he was trapped him in front of the stumps one short of what would have been a well deserved half century. Robin Uthappa came in at no.4, but his stay in the middle was short lived as he departed for just 1. The crowd sensed a comeback but Ganguly had other plans as he lifted Mishra over mid-wicket for his first maximum of the season. Yuvraj joined Ganguly out in the middle with Pune needing 41 from 44 balls for victory.

Christian got his second when Yuvraj (2) played the ball back on to his own stumps and there was a bit of a spark in the crowd but Callum Ferguson put the game to bed hitting 3 boundaries in 4 balls. Pune reached the target with 10 balls remaining as Ganguly remained unbeaten on 32, justifying his signing and showing that there was still plenty of fight left in the old tiger.

Pune Warriors jump to 7th place in the IPL table and having won back-to-back games, they will look forward to marching up the table when they play Deccan Chargers again next Monday. The Chargers have just pride to play for and they needed to justify their talents and put up a good show as they now travel to Mumbai to face the Mumbai Indians on Saturday before that rematch with the Pune Warriors.

Teams:

Deccan Chargers: Shikhar Dhawan, Ravi Teja, Kumar Sangakkara (c & wk), JP Duminy, Daniel Christian, Bharat Chipli, Pragyan Ojha, Sunny Sohal, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma.

Pune Warriors: Jesse Ryder, Manish Pandey, Robin Uthappa (wk), Yuvraj Singh (capt), Callum Ferguson, Sourav Ganguly, Mitchell Marsh, Shrikant Wagh, Rahul Sharma, Wayne Parnell, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Mini Scorecard:

Deccan Chargers 136/8 in 20 overs (6.8 runs per over)
R Teja 30(27) M Marsh 4-25
JP Duminy 30(30) Y Singh 2-17

Pune Warriors 137/4 in 18.2 overs (7.47 runs per over)
M Pandey 49(42) D Christian 2-21
J Ryder 35(20) P Ojha 1-13

Pune Warrriors won by 6 wickets