IPL T20- Indian Premier League

What

Match 13 of Pepsi IPL 2013 will feature a battle between two teams with contrasting fortunes. Pune Warriors India, who’ve lost their first two matches and lie at the bottom of the table, play host to the Rajasthan Royals who’ve won two out of two and are sitting pretty in the top half of the table.

A very good team on paper, the Pune Warriors haven’t quite got their act together. The team failed to chase down 126 and suffered an embarrassing 22-run defeat in their opening match at home. Things went from bad to worse in the second game when, sans Yuvraj Singh, they batted out their entire 20 overs but only managed to post 99 runs on the board. Robin Uthappa, Marlon Samuels, Ross Taylor and Angelo Mathews have reputations of being very dangerous batsmen; but between them, they’ve only managed to contribute 97 runs in two matches and that has hurt the team big time. Having lost two matches, they will want to get their first points on the board and they have a good chance of doing so when they play this home fixture.

The Rajasthan Royals may not possess too many superstars in their line-up. But their strength lies in the fact that all the players in the line-up play with freedom and punch above their weight. The team would have learnt their lessons from last season, when they won four of their first six matches but only managed to win three of their remaining ten, eventually missing out on a Play-Off berth by just one win.

When

Thursday, April 11, 2013, 8 p.m

Where

Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune

The Protagonists

The Pune Warriors India will look forward to the return of Yuvraj Singh to their line-up. The southpaw had to miss the previous game owing to back injury and is more than likely to be available for this match. Also keep an eye on Ross Taylor whose place in the XI could come under the scanner after two poor outings and with growing voices for the inclusion of Steve Smith. The 23-year old Smith was Pune Warriors’ second-highest run-getter last season and was in good touch during Australia’s Test series in India recently.

For Rajasthan Royals, Ajinkya Rahane showed glimpses of good form in the previous match. Given his growth chart as a cricketer, he will be expected to play a key role for the Royals. Shane Watson didn’t contribute too much in his first outing and he will be itching to make a bigger contribution, as will Brad Hodge whose knock was chiefly responsible in RR posting a respective total against KKR.

Previous Meetings

The Rajasthan Royals have a 100% record against Pune Warriors India. The two teams have so far met on three occasions and the Rajasthan Royals have won each of those matches.

Trivia

Pune Warriors India will be very keen to improve on their home record; the team has only managed to win two of the nine matches they’ve played at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune.

Siddharth Trivedi is the Rajasthan Royals’ most-capped player; he has played 61 of the franchises 76 matches in the IPL.

What Next

Pune Warriors India will hop across the city to the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to take on the Mumbai Indians on April 13 while the Rajasthan Royals will head back home to host Kings XI Punjab on April 14.

Standing by the boundary line, with his hands folded and chest held high was Dayanand Cheedi; assistant to the chief coach of Hanuma Vihari who saw one of his favorite students collecting the man of the match award in the post match presentation ceremony. 
A smile donned his face; his eyes bore tears of joy as the hard work and sweat put in by Vihari all these years had finally paid off. “I knew one day his dedication and sincerity would bear fruit,” said a visibly happy.

“You should see him at the throw downs, you should see him practice. The amount of hard work he puts into his game, is worth admiring. He is a work horse. He would bat for hours, take throw downs from me and ask me for advices on his game. His chief coach John Manoj would be a happy man today.” explained Cheedi who has worked closely with Vihari over the years and was eagerly waiting to congratulate the young lad from Hyderabad.

For Vihari, it’s a dream come true. May it be being amidst the best cricketers and sipping a hot cup of tea or longing for advice on his game from the legends; Vihari is cherishing each and every moment in the IPL. 

“I did well in the domestic season for Hyderabad and the owners chose me to play for the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Normally you don’t get chances in the IPL, but am fortunate enough to be playing here. I never thought before the IPL that I would be sharing the dressing room with the greats of cricket. It is like I am living a dream. I am blessed to have got such an opportunity.”

And when Vihari got his opportunity, he sure made the most of it. He got to bowl his first over in the IPL, in the second over of the match between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. What was to follow, neither the crowd nor Gayle nor Vihari himself would have expected as he bagged the big fish in the bag. The gentle off spinner had done the trick; Chris Gayle was out for 1 and it was a big blow early on for the RCB. Not surprisingly, the nineteen year old cherished the moment whole heartedly. 

“It is a dream come true for me to get Chris Gayle’s wicket. Getting the wicket of the best T20 player in the world in the very first ball is special for me.” Vihari also said that it was a special plan devised by the team to get the destructive Gayle out. 

“It was our special plan to bowl spin to Gayle early in the innings. We noticed that he had stuck around in the first six overs in the previous match and then went big towards the end. So the team think tank took a chance by bowling me to Gayle in the very second over of the match. I am glad I got him out and our plan worked.”

When asked if there were some nerves in the dressing room during that one over thriller, Vihari calmly said, “I was confident that we would win when Thisara Perera and Cameron White put up 20 runs in the one over eliminator. White and Perera, both are huge hitters and they set up the target perfectly which I thought would put even a destructive batsman like Gayle under pressure. Plus we had a world class bowler in Dale Steyn against whom it was always going to be tough to score against.”

Vihari indeed looked a confident man after a man of the match performance as he picked up a wicket in the only over he bowled throughout the match and scored an unbeaten 44 of 46 balls to keep the Sunrisers’ hopes alive. “The wicket was double paced. I knew I had to bat till the end if my team had to cross the line. It was important for us to keep the wickets in hand till the end so that we could chase down the target.” 

Like any other budding cricketer Vihari wishes to represent India one day. But at the moment his focus is purely on the IPL. He was the show stealer for the Sunrisers’ Hyderabad on a fabulous Sunday night, and playing in front of a huge crowd indeed felt special for the nineteen year old. “It is always special to play matches like these in front of a huge crowd. These are matches that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

“I dedicate this performance to my mother and all my coaches without whose support I wouldn’t not have been here talking about my performance,” said the shy Vihari while signing off.

Kings XI Punjab, playing their first match of the Pepsi IPL 2013 tournament, started off in grand style, routing Pune Warriors India by eight wickets at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune. KXIP managed to chase the small target of 100 runs after a wonderful effort by their bowlers restricted PWI to 99. 

Chasing just 100 runs, Adam Gilchrist (15) got KXIP going with 14 runs of the very first over. He struck two boundaries and a six off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Angelo Matthews then had his counterpart, Gilchrist, caught at deep square leg. Ashok Dinda's second over was taken apart for 21 runs as IPL debutant, Manan Vohra (43*) hit him for four successive boundaries. 

Vohra along with Mandeep Singh (31) put on 58 runs for the second wicket to set up the chase for KXIP. Mandeep was dropped on 22 by Dinda, but he couldn’t capitalise on it as Rahul Sharma dismantled the stumps behind him the next over. Vohra and David Hussey (8*) saw the team home with 46 balls remaining.

Earlier PWI won the toss and elected to bat. Praveen Kumar drew first blood bowling Manish Pandey for a duck. Yuvraj Singh who sat out due to a sore back was missed dearly. Under pressure from disciplined Punjab bowling, Tirumalasetti Suman (6) fell trying to break the shackles giving Azhar Mahmood his first wicket. Marlon Samuels (3) soon followed, run out courtesy of a brilliant throw by Mandeep Singh.

It only got worse as Robin Uthappa (19) had his stumps rearranged by Chawla and Parvinder Awana then had Angelo Matthews (4) caught behind leaving PWI in dire straight at 38 for 5 in 10 overs. Ross Taylor (15) joined the procession with Gurkeerat Singh pulling an absolute blinder of a catch in the deep. The collapse continued as Mitchell Marsh (15) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (8) departed in the pursuit of runs. Abhishek Nayar (25*) helped PWI salvage some runs to reach 99 for 9 from their 20 overs. 

Man-of-the-Match: Manan Vohra. 

Brief Scores: Pune Warriors India 99 for 9 in 20.0 overs (Abhishek Nayar 25*, Azhar Mahmood 2-19) lost to Kings XI Punjab 100 for 2 in (Manan Vohra 43*, Angelo Mattthews 1-12) by 8 wickets. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad, playing their first game in the IPL, put up a brave fight and successfully defended a small total, they posted on the board, to start off the 2013 season on a winning note. The home team, which posted 126 batting first, defeated Pune Warriors India by 22 runs thanks to Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra, who shared 6 wickets between them. 

PWI, needing 127 runs to score their first points in the tournament, started circumspectly. Robin Uthappa (24) struck back to back boundaries before falling to Thisara Perera, giving the home team their first wicket. Perera struck again in his next over, removing Marlon Samuels (5) who edged it straight to Cameron White at first slip. 

Mishra then dismissed Yuvraj Singh (2) stumped down the leg side when PWI required 79 runs to win in 10.1 overs. Mishra then had Manish Pandey (15) playing a wild slog to further mount the pressure. 

Urgency from Ross Taylor (19) and Abhishek Nayar (19) helped PWI rebuild but Mishra struck again sending back Nayar to bag his third. PWI were given a double blow as Taylor and Mitchell Marsh (7) fell in quick succession. Steyn then wrapped it all up with three wickets in four balls as PWI fell 22 runs short. 

Earlier, PWI won the toss and opted to field. The Sunrisers openers were kept quiet by disciplined bowling, giving away just 21 runs in the first four overs before Ashok Dinda castled Parthiv Patel (19) bringing captain Kumar Sangakara (15) to the middle. Sangakkara and Akshath Reddy (27) got on with the task of laying a foundation, but just as Sangakara started to get going, Rahul Sharma pegged his middle stump, providing PWI their second breakthrough.

PWI spinners strangled the Sunrisers’ run flow and the home side struggled to find any sort of momentum. Yuvraj Singh then got rid of Reddy to further sink the home team. Perera (30) tried to add new life into the Sunrisers' innings with two gorgeous drives off Sharma, but wickets continued to fall as Samuels got Cameron White (10) caught on the fence. Perera showed his hard hitting abilities taking 14 of Samuel's 17th over before he too fell to become Dinda's second scalp. Sunrisers eventually finished at 126 for 6 from their 20 overs.