Pune Warriors get a dream debut

The second new team in the IPL this year, the 2nd from Maharashtra, the team which almost had a quiet build up to the IPL since its inception last year had a dream debut in the IPL 4. Having got to play its first game in adjoining Navi Mumbai, the team streamrolled KXIP and its tough luck continued. 

Nothing went right for KXIP since the toss. The new skipper, the old opener, the new  reserve keeper, everybody failed and at one time its score read 4 for 9. (Or 9 for 4).

Dinesh Karthik scored a duck.

Punjab were restricted to 112 though Ryan McLaren did his best to up the ante, but the rest around him just didnt battle enough. 

Graeme Smith's horror form continued and this time it  was not Zak who nailed him, but Praveen Pehelwan who got him first ball of the innings. 

And though Kings XI got 2 quick wickets of Jesse Ryder and Manhas, the pair of Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh took Pune Warriors home without any further hiccup.A dream debut for Pune. 

Surprised to see Chitale Bandhu / Joshi Vadewale / Rohit Wadewale not figuring on the black jerseys of Pune Warriors India.

Pune Preview

I dont like Pune the city. 6+ years in that city were good to give me jitters to stay away from the city. But the IPL is back in that city. With its own team. No stadium. The age old Jawaharlal Nehru stadium is pathetic to host any game, be it IPL or a MPL or a club game. The new stadium in Gahunje, between Pune and Mumbai seems not ready to host the game. 

Its 50 kms away from the IT park in Hinjewadi, the awful place for traffic jams. Given how bad public transport in Pune is, how many people would have  travelled to Gahunje to view the games. So Pune would play all its home games in DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai. 

Logistics apart, the team is called Sahara Warriors. 

And is led by the reborn man of the World Cup, Yuvraj Singh.  Its such a joy to see Yuvraj in full flow. And he is very much near the peak he has achieved in 2007-2008 duration. He would be a man brimming with confidence given his exploits in the premier tournament of the world. 

He is up against Kings XI, franchisee for which he was icon player for 3 seasons. And they dented his confidence in 2010 when they gave the captaincy to Kumar Sangakara Nanga to end up wooden spoon holders. So he shall have a point to prove against them. 

Team composition:

Desi players:

Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Uthappa, Wagh, Dheeraj Jadhav, Rahul Sharma, Manish Pandey, Mundhe, Manhas, Kartik, Jhunjhunwala,  etc

Foreign Players:

Callum Fergie, Graeme Smith, Nathan McCullum, Angelo Matthews, Tim Paine, Jesse Ryder, Wayne Parnell, Jerome Taylor

The team is decent, the chances for them to go to the semis depends on how the team composition is decided and most importantly on the form of Yuvraj Singh.

The Bhamte and old generation Pune would support Yuvraj as IPL captain? Doubtful. They dont have too many players from Pune except few. Dheeraj Jadhav is one of them followed by Wagh and Khadiwale.  The Puneris are a bit averse to the outsiders, so they warming up to the IPL players is a bit doubtful.