A magnificent fifth-wicket partnership between Luke Wright and Angelo Mathews and a captain’s knock by Aaron Finch in spite of a calf injury, propelled the Pune Warriors to 172 for five in the Pepsi Indian Premier League match against the Delhi Daredevils at the Sabrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune on Sunday.
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Wright and Mathews added 71 runs off 38 balls for the fifth wicket after joining forces with Pune badly in need of late momentum on 96 for four in the fourteenth over.
Wright smashed 44 off 23 balls with seven fours and a six.
Mathews finished undefeated on 30 off 22 balls, with two sixes.
Umesh Yadav started impressively, but he faded badly as Wright and Mathews scored 23 runs in his final over, the penultimate over of the innings.
Finch was the dynamo in the first fourteen overs of the innings and led the assault with a 31-ball half-century. He scored 52, with three fours and four sixes.
After his dismissal, Wright and Mathews featured in a dynamic fifth-wicket partnership that changed the tempo of the innings in dramatic fashion.
Finch kick-started the innings in style and received some assistance from Robin Uthappa at the other end, who slammed 24 off 20 balls to guide Pune to 38 without loss in the fifth over.
The early introduction of Yadav and Siddarth Kaul stemmed the tide as the pedestrian Pune struggled to increase the run-rate.
Finch broke the shackles with three boundaries in the ninth over, bowled by Yadav to power the hosts to 71 for one.
Finch continued to dominate and reached his half-century off 31 balls with three fours and four sixes.
But the hosts were stunned by two soft dismissals in the middle period that thwarted their progress.
Finch got a leading edge to a delivery from Kaul and was caught at midwicket by Virender Sehwag for 52, leaving the hosts on 91 for three after 12 overs.
Yuvraj Singh’s poor run of form continued when he attempted a silly uppercut to a long hop from Irfan Pathan and was caught at mid-off for 3. Pune slumped to 96 for four in the fourteenth over.
Wright and Mathews then resurrected the innings as the final five overs yielded 65 runs.
Kaul took 2-27.
Shahbaz Nadeem finished with 1-21 from four overs and was the pick of the attack.
Yadav captured 1-52 in four overs.
Morné Morkel’s indifferent form with the ball in the IPL-competition continued. He finished with 0-36 from four overs.
Morkel captured 25 wickets in the 2012-season, and finished as the leading wicket-taker.
He only managed seven wickets this season and lacked the consistency and potency that made him such a superb practitioner with the ball in 2012.
PUNE WARRIORS: TBA
DELHI DAREDEVILS: TBA