It was billed as the King taking on the Prince, with Ganguly winning the first battle at the toss and decided to have a bowl on an un-Chennai like pitch that looked much greener than usual, as opposed to the spinners' paradise we've come to know. Pune started nicely in keeping the scoring rate down, as both Karthik and Nehra gave away little to Badrinath and du Plessis. Runs were hard to come by and they were clearly anxious to get a move on, Badrinath in particular was guilty of trying to over hit the ball as well as nervy running between the wickets. However, they both rode their luck to put together what was a strange partnership to watch. The scoring rate was upped from 17/0 after 4 overs to around the 7 an over mark for the majority of their partnership. The longer it went on the more obvious it became that they needed to accelerate, especially with the big hitting middle order itching to build on the good start made. Timing was hard to come by and attempted slogs continued to fall in gaps, just evading the reach of fielders and Uthappa missed the odd stumping too. It seems ridiculous to think that an opening partnership of 116 (Badrinath - 57 from 48 & du Plessis 58 from 48) could be seen as a hindrance, it was far from that, but it gave the rest of the batsmen just 5 overs to tee off at the end. Consequently, it looked as if Pune were set to restrict CSK to around 150, following a miserly 16th over from Samuels (4-0-37-3) that cost just one run and sent back both openers to catches from Mathews in the deep. However, Dhoni led a late charge as the last 3 overs were hit for 37, proving to be decisive in the end. Samuels, who had bowled so well up till that point, was hit for 18 from the last over including an enormous 104m straight 6 from Dhoni as the ball cleared the roof! Pune would have pleased with restricting CSK to anything below 150, especially after having struggled to pick up wickets, but the late onslaught was pivotal. Dhoni managed to clear the fence on a wicket that others had struggled on whilst trying to do the same and this ultimately made the difference as 164/5 was to be just out of reach for Pune, as Nehra came back well from his last over nightmare to take 4-0-23-2.
Pune would need to maximise the powerplay overs if they were to get near CSK's total and whilst the positive intent shown was good, I think the decision making was slightly awry at times. Uthappa, arguably PWI's best player on slow pitches, had just lifted Kulasekera's first ball over mid-off for a stylish boundary, prompting Dhoni to come up to the stumps. Next ball, the bowler dragged the length back and Uthappa attempted the same shot from his crease and was caught by a diving Ashwin at mid-off, the wrong option to take and falling straight into Dhoni's trap. Equally, Ryder fell into the trap set up for him as Kulasekera dug a short ball in that was clubbed out to Bravo at deep-midwicket who took another great catch. The pull is one of Ryder's best shots but on a pitch that had proved difficult to go over the top on, taking on the fielder was ill advised. Unfortunately Pandey was the next man to get himself out. The 6th over had just gone for 18, with Ganguly finding the middle of the bat to get Pune back level with the required rate. Pandey then inexplicably went for a maximum as Bravo sent down the first ball of the 7th over, it really was unnecessary at a point when he needed to take responsibility at number 4 and knuckle down with his skipper. Ganguly went a few overs later, at a point when boundaries really were needed, to bring about a good partnership between Samuels (26 from 24) and Smith (23 from 21), that gave Pune an outside chance. They ran well and waited for poor balls, taking the odd calculated risk and showed the way for the rest before them.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be for PWI as the pitch had got slower all game and by the end of the PWI innings all the batsmen were struggling to time their big hits. Mathews, and a poor 16th over from Ashwin, gave Chennai a late scare with 41 needed from the last 4 but it proved to be too much without the wickets in hand that CSK had, as Pune came up 11 short at 151/7. Bravo (4-0-28-2) was good in the middle overs and at the death and Jadeja proved exceptionally tough to score off (4-0-21-0). Kulasekera was a strange choice for MoM, despite bowling his 2 overs well to take 2-10, and I'd have given it to Bravo for his all round performance (12 from 8 balls, 2-28 and lively fielding). However, it was not their bowling that stopped Pune's charge from materialising but instead their impeccable performance in the field, the best showing of this IPL. The Pune top 6 all fell to terrific catches, silly shots or not, and they must have saved at least 10-15 runs in the outfield that was crucial in the outcome. Pune's comparative inexperience was evident and Chennai were stunningly clinical throughout the run chase to secure a win that takes the 2 sides level with 3 wins from 6 each as CSK showed why they're the defending champions.
From a Pune point of view, it was another so near yet so far performance. They failed to learn from watching Faf and Badrinath's partnership, going over the top was difficult and that a big platform was needed to give the necessary wickets in hand for late runs to be scored.The Samuels/Smith partnership was proof that the pitch was possible to score in, so long as a sensible rather than cavalier approach to hitting boundaries was taken. Hopefully they'll learn from it, especially with a tough game against in form Delhi next up, and get back to winning ways, potentially with the instrumental Dinda returning form injury.
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