Pune wallop Deccan
Pune Warriors bowler Mitchell Marsh (L) celebrates the wicket of Sunny Sohal of Deccan Chargers during their IPL encounter at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad yesterday.Mitchell Marsh grabbed four wickets and Sourav Ganguly hit an unbeaten 32 on comeback as Pune Warriors beat Deccan Chargers by six wickets in the Indian Premier League at Hyderabad yesterday.
Elsewhere, slow left-armer Bhargav Bhatt turned in a Man-of-the-match performance as tenth-placed Kings XI Punjab affected the tournament's first big upset by upending the juggernaut of the top-placed Mumbai Indians in Mohali.
Put in to bat first, Punjab reached a competitive 163 for 8 on the back of handy contributions from Shaun Marsh (43) and Dinesh Karthik (31). After a relatively strong showing by the top four, familiar batting woes surfaced as the lower middle order batsmen surrendered a bit of the momentum in the dying stages of the first innings. Medium pacer Munaf Patel picked up a five-wicket haul as Mumbai put the skids on Punjab's late-overs charge.
Punjab's bowlers then dismantled the vaunted Mumbai batting line-up for a paltry 87 all out in less than 13 overs, a significant reversal for a side boasting the talents of Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds and Kieron Pollard. Tendulkar was first to go, caught at point off pacer Praveen Kumar for 6, and it all went downhill from there.
After the top order collapse that saw Mumbai slip to 54 for five, Bhatt grabbed his opportunity to wrap up the tail, picking up the last four wickets as Mumbai slid to an embarrassing defeat. Even with this reversal, Mumbai stay in top position, while the convincing victory moves Punjab up one position to ninth.
In the day's earlier match, Australian paceman Marsh, 19, finished with 4-25 as Pune restricted Deccan to 136-8 before achieving the target with 10 balls to spare for their fourth win in 11 matches of the Twenty20 tournament.
Former India captain Ganguly, who went unsold at the player auction before being signed up by Pune as a replacement for injured seamer Ashish Nehra, looked impressive during his 32-ball knock, hitting one six and three fours.
Opener Manish Pandey top-scored for Pune with 49, while New Zealander Jesse Ryder smashed a 20-ball 35 with the help of two sixes and five fours.
Both the teams are virtually out of contention for a place in the semifinals, with Pune having secured eight points and Deccan six.
Marsh, son of former Australian opener Geoff Marsh and younger brother of batsman Shaun, and left-arm spinner Yuvraj Singh were instrumental in restricting Deccan to a modest total.
Deccan made a strong start after electing to bat when Ravi Teja (30) and Shikhar Dhawan (24) put on 51 for the opening wicket before skipper Yuvraj struck with his fourth delivery.
The spinner broke the stand when he bowled Dhawan before finishing with 2-17 off four overs.
Marsh also got a wicket in his opening over when he bowled Teja before dismissing South African JP Duminy (30), Sunny Sohal and Amit Mishra in the space of five balls in his fourth and last over.
SCORES IN BRIEF
DECCAN CHARGERS: 136-8 in 20 overs (Duminy 30, Teja 30, Dhawan 24; Marsh 4-25, Yuvraj 2-17)
PUNE WARRIORS: 137-4 in 18.2 overs (Pandey 49, Ryder 35, Ganguly 32 not out; Christian 2-21)
Result: Pune Warriors won by six wickets.
Man-of-the-match: Mitchell Marsh.
KINGS XI PUNJAB: 163 for 8 in 20 overs (Marsh 43, Karthik 31, Gilchrist 28; Patel 5-21)
MUMBAI INDIANS: 87 all out in 12.5 overs (Pollard 17, Blizzard 15; Bhatt 4-22, Praveen 2-19)
Result: Kings XI Punjab won by 76 runs.
Man-of-the-match: Bhargav Bhatt
