DLF IPL Season 5 - Match 3
Pune Warriors Vs Mumbai Indians at Mumbai
What looked like a one-sided match turned out to be an anti-climax and also proved the critics wrong. A leading newspaper wrote today "It may be a Good Friday for others, but a bad Friday for Sourav Ganguly, as he is likely to lose the match against Mumbai". This sentence would have irritated Dada fans all over the world, but Jesus was kind enough to make it a memorable Friday for him.
Mumbai Indians started without their star batsman Sachin Tendulkar, who injured his finger during the match against CSK. Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field. Pune Warriors started with skipper Sourav Ganguly and Manish Pandey. Manish Pandey disappointed getting out for a duck. Sourav Ganguly could not contribute much either getting out for 3 runs trying to step out and hit Harbhajan, stumped by Dinesh Kartik. Wayne Parnell scored just 11 runs. But Uthappa and Smith played their role to perfection scoring 36 and 39 runs respectively. Their innings enabled Pune reach a respectable score of 129 runs. But the question in everybody's mind was "Is it enough to win against the mighty Mumbai Indians?". Malinga was the pick of the bowlers for Mumbai Indians with a scalp of 2/16 from 4 overs.
Mumbai suffered early setback, even worse than Pune Warriors. Star of previous match Richard Levi could not contribute much this time, getting out for a duck to a clever delivery from Murali Kartik. Rayudu and Rohit Sharma departed in a hurry which saw Mumbai tottering at 5/3. James Franklin and Dinesh Karthik batted sensibly scoring identical 32 runs, the latter scoring at a better strike rate. It seemed that they would take Mumbai Indians towards victory. But excellent bowling effort from Ashok Dinda and Murali Karthik wrecked them. After their departure it was a sad story for Mumbai Indians as no batsman worried to stay at the crease. Harbhajan fought to some extent for his 16 runs. But Mumbai Indians collapsed to 101/9 in 20 overs. Pune Warriors won by 28 runs, a huge margin considering the target of 130 runs. Dinda was the pick of the bowlers capturing 4/18 from 4 overs, ably supported by Murali Karthik, Marlon Samuels and Rahul Sharma who bowled economically and also kept capturing wickets.
A treat for Dada's fans as he marshaled his resources to defend a low score and secure a well deserved win for his efforts that too against the mighty Mumbai Indians.
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