Struggling Pune take on table-toppers Chennai
At the half-way stage of the tournament while most teams are battling hard to make the top four, Pune Warriors India are fighting for survival. After finishing last in the previous edition, Pune are once again languishing at the bottom of the chart with four points from nine games. At a time when one more loss can put the equation beyond their control, Pune are scheduled to host Chennai Super Kings, the table toppers on Wednesday.
While Chennai may appear as overwhelming favourites on paper, Pune, who suffered a 14-run loss on Sunday against Delhi Daredevils at Raipur can take heart from their performance against M. S Dhoni’s boys earlier in this month. Pune had managed to tame Chennai in their away match in what proved to be one the most unexpected results in the ongoing tournament. The big win however proved to be an aberration as Pune later lost four in a row while Chennai regrouped brilliantly, to register five straight victories.
Pune have been inconsistent in all departments of the game and their inability to hold nerves under pressure has hurt them badly. On Sunday, they gave yet another example of it when chasing 165, Pune crashed to a 15-run loss despite having six wickets in hand. After scoring 75/0 in the first ten, Pune lost the plot in the second and scored only 74 for the loss of four wickets.
Steven Smith, capable of scoring quickly remained unutilized for 18 overs in the chase which proved crucial. The problem of deathbowling has haunted Pune for long and now they need to focus on the batting too. Barring captain Aaron Finch (three), no other Pune batsman has scored a fifty so far in this edition. Dashing batsman Yuvraj Singh’s has scored 135 runs from six games while Robin Uthappa has 204 runs from nine games at an average of 22.26.
In complete contrast, Chennai have put up an allround show with Michael Hussey firing at the top and Dhoni anchoring middleorder. The Australian southpaw slammed an unbeaten 95 in just 59 balls on Sunday leading his team to victory against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Despite Chennai’s 14-run win, captain Dhoni said his team’s bowling and fielding was ‘ugly’ in parts. Chennai’s reputation as the formidable T20 outfit stems from this hunger to improve every time they’re on the field, a quality that Pune need to imbibe.