Wednesday 20 April 2011

Mumbai Indians V Pune Warriors - First Innings Report


Both the Mumbai Indians and the Pune Warriors looked to come back from demoralising defeats in their last IPL outtings as they faced up at the Wankhede Stadium.

Yuvraj won the toss for Pune and elected to bat and the first real bit of action came off of the third ball of the day.

Jesse Ryder looked to hit hard and straight to the opening spinner Murtaza and dragged his back foot out of the crease, getting it back behind the line just in time as Ambati Rayudu whipped the bails off, getting off the mark with two off the next ball.

Ryder was the first man to put the ball to the boundary, clipping a Lasith Malinga slower ball over mid off for four as the dangerous Sri Lankan looked to mix it up in his first over, but two overs later his wicket was to fall to Abu Nechim.

With his third delivery the medium-fast bowler had Ryder slightly hunched as he looked to hit over the top, Sachin Tendulkar jogging backwards to take the catch and holding on with aplomb to bring Mithun Manhas to the crease only for the Jammu born batsman to walk back to the sidelines after just one ball, taking a swing at Nechim, edging the ball to Rayudu to give the bowler his second wicket of the over.

Andrew Symonds nearly ran out Robin Uthappa as he and Tim Paine got in a mess, eventually deciding against taking a single before the latter found himself out next ball, trying to put Munaf Patel to the boundary, missing completely and hearing the death rattle behind him, the ball clipping the off stump and taking of the bail.

Pune's star man and captain Yuvraj came to the wicket with his team looking in trouble but instead of helping he too found himself out for nought, snicking behind for Rayudu to claim his second catch of the match as the Warriors lost their first four wickets for just one run, the score standing at a lowly 17.

Kieron Pollard came on to bowl in the eighth over and two balls in overstepped the popping crease, handing Uthappa the chance of a free hit and he duly obliged, smashing the ball straight for six with a horizontal bat.

After hitting one of the returning Murtaza's balls over the rope for four Monish Mishra clearly became overconfident, trying the same shot again but this time finding Rohit Sharma at long on, taking the catch comfortably.

It was becoming clear that the key man for Pune was to be Uthappa and he was slowly working his innings, picking the right balls to attack as he passed twenty with a four off Malinga.

James Franklin was the next new bowler to join the attack and he didn't get off to a great start as he saw his first delivery clipped for four off the legs of Uthappa before his second delivery gave away a free hit to Murali Kartik. That ball went for a single but the bowler overstepped once again, no runs coming off the second consecutive free hit. That over eventually went for eleven runs.

Despite the fact that Robin Uthappa hit the ball straight to Sachin Tendulkar Lasith Malinga was not to get his first wicket as the ball slipped out of his fingers and looked to go right at the batsmans chest, no ball being signalled by the square leg umpire.

Kartik was the next batsman to leave the field, chipping the ball up to Andrew Symonds at mid on for what was a truly soft dismissal.

The Pune dangerman Robin Uthappa was looking good as he reached 45 only to find himself dismissed as Kieron Pollard ran round from long on to throw himself forwards and take a superb low catch off the bowling of Ali Murtaza who finished his spell with figures of 2-17.

As the innings drew into its last five overs Rahul Sharma looked to take the game to the Indians as he smashed a ball high over the boundary for six, his partner wasn't to stay with him, though, Wayne Parnell trying to put away his second boundary of the over, his swipe getting nowhere near the ball and Franklin cleaned him up.

Pune went down to their last pairing as Wagh failed to handle the pace of Malinga, the ball floating up for Andrew Symonds to take the simplest of catches.

The innings was finished off when Munaf put in a full toss, Rahul Sharma looking to put it to the cover boundary, only to see the ball snaffled up by the hands of Ali Murtaza in the deep.

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