Warriors look for true ‘ home’ support

Sourav Ganguly is cautious. With the IPL being a long tournament, it is quite possible that the Pune Warriors will go through their share of crests and troughs over the next few weeks, hoping to hit peak form when they really need it.

But they pulled off something special on Friday night with a stunning 28run win over heavyweights Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede.

And it will do their confidence a world of good when they face Kings XI Punjab in their first ‘ home’ game at the spank- ing new Subroto Roy Sahara Stadium, some 30kms from here.

Pune were under the cosh at the halfway stage, having only managed to post 129, but their bevy of spinners along with seamer Ashok Dinda — debuting for his third IPL team — ensured the target was more than enough.

For a franchise whose fate was not known until a few weeks ago, and whose icon player — Yuvraj Singh — is halfway across the world getting treated for a major illness, their start to Season Five was great.

Much of the credit should go to skipper Ganguly who marshaled his resources superbly. He began with the left- arm spin of Murali Kartik against the righthanded South African batsman Richard Levi and then reverted to Dinda once Levi was out of the picture.

It will be interesting to see if Ganguly’s men can repeat their performance against Kings XI, with the latter batting deep.

Like they showed last season, one big knock from either of Adam Gilchrist, Shaun Marsh or Paul Valthaty is usually enough to secure a win.

A lot will depend on the pitch of this 55,000- seater stadium though.

It is an enigma though, as it will be hosting it’s first proper and will be tough to predict how it behaves under lights.