Pune: Some fantastic batting from Luke Wright and Aaron Finch coupled with some brilliant bowling from the trio of Ashok Dinda, Angelo Mathews and Ali Murtaza helped Pune Warriors India register a consolation win against Delhi Daredevils by 38 runs at the Subroto Roy Sahara Stadium, here on Sunday.
Chasing the target of 173 for win turned out to be a nightmare for DD as Wayne Parnell struck early to send back David Warner back to the dug-out. Mahela Jayawardene and Bharat Chipli were looking good as they added 23 runs for the second wicket. But soon Murtaza came into action and dismantled Delhi's top-order as he got rid of Jayawardene, Virender Sehwag and Chipli. Dinda came into the party as he picked up the big wicket of Ben Rohrer who departed after scoring seven runs.
Though Irfan Pathan and CM Gautam added 54 runs for the sixth wicket and created an outside chance but the dismissal of Gautam after scoring 30 runs off 23 balls put the brakes on their scoring rate. Mathews bagged the wickets of Pathan, Gautam and Morne Morkel to end up his spell with 3/14.
Dinda wrapped up the DD’s innings for 134 runs as he got Shahbaz Nadeem out.
Earlier, it was some brilliant batting from the Robin Uthappa and Aaron Finch as they added 38 runs in their first five overs. Uthappa departed after scoring 24 runs but Finch continued his assault on DD’s bowlers as he went onto score 52 runs. But some loose shots from the batsmen of Pune Warriors gave DD a chance to make a comeback by getting the wicket of Manish Pandey and Yuvraj Singh in quick successions.
Luke Wright and Angelo Mathews played some cracking shots in the last five overs as they scored 44 and 30 runs which helped their side to get to 172 runs. They smacked seven fours and three sixes in their partnership of 71 runs which setup the game beautifully for PWI.
By ISN