 In what will be the 10th game of the Indian Premier League, the Pune Warriors will play the Kochi Tuskers at the Dr. DY Patil Stadium at
Navi Mumbai. This is the home for the Warrior, who do not have their own stadium
ready and hence will look to ensure that they can perform well in front of the
Mumbai crowds as well.
Pune go into this game with a win under their belt. They had began their first
ever campaign in the tournament with a win over the listless Kings XI Punjab.
First the Pune bowlers, Shrikant Wagh and Alfonso Thomas bowled the opponents
out for 112 and then got to the target in 13 overs. This was thanks to the batting
of Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh, both of who went hammer and tongs at the target.
Both had initially been dropped by the opponents and they took full toll of the
fact.
Click for Live Score Card of Pune Warriors Vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala
As compared to that, the Tuskers did not do too badly but still lost the game
to the Royal Challengers Bangalore. For one, the Bangalore side were a much stronger
side than the opponents and secondly, the Kochi side were coming together for
the first time. Yet, there was a fight from the Tuskers, as they scored 161 in
their 20 overs and then almost made life difficult for the Bangalore team when
they needed 39 to win the game in the last three overs.
For some strange reason then, Mahela Jayawardene, the skipper of the Kochi
side, gave the ball to Raiphi Gomez, who went for 20 in the over and the game
was over in a trice.
This time around the two sides will need to tighten up their loose knots even
more. Pune will need their top order to not consider the job done given the next
player is a good batsman. They will have to do the job themselves. Graeme Smith
got a first ball duck and will look to get the better of his poor form while Jesse Ryder will need to get going with the bat too.
Manish Pandey should come back to the side but the big question is whether he can replace the in form Mithun Manhas.
Kochi will need much more from their pace bowling duo of RP Singh and S Sreesanth.
Pune should be favourites but Kochi will give them a fight.
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