Ganguly, who enjoyed the adulation of the home fans all game, won the toss and was keen to have a bat first and what was seen to be a slow, low wicket that would get more difficult to bat on as the game went on. Pune's start did not go according to plan, some fortunate boundaries and poor running between the wickets meant that by the end of the powerplay PWI had reached 38/2 with both openers back in the pavillion. As is often the case in 20/20 this led to a period of rebuilding between a couple of Pune's (and my 2 favourite players in their lineup) big hitters who had to play some sensible cricket to get their side back on track. Uthappa (40 from 33) and Samuels (46 from 39) struck the occassional boundary whilst rotating the strike nicely. Mascarenhas bowled well on debut, a real one day specialist these days who is really tough to get away (ask any county pro in England!) and with the rate ticking along at 7 an over the innings could have gone either way. Harmeet Singh had a game he's unlikely to forget any time soon, his canny leg rollers accounted for Uthappa, Samuels and Ferguson and stifled the scoring when suddenly he lost the plot in his last over, the penultimate of the innings. 2 beamers meant he had to be removed from the attack and Steve Smith relished the chance to smash round 4 balls of Bipul Sharma's left arm spin. The over went for 27 and all of sudden PWI had scored 166/6 when around a much more chaseable 150 had seemed likely. That brief period completely shifted the momentum and lost KXIP the match.
As in their last match KXIP's batting never got into the chase, a score of 19/2 after 6 overs in a large chase is a remarkable statistic. They were intent on outdoing PWI in terms of hapless running as Valthaty and Gilchrist fell to a huge mix-up and a tip run to short cover. An inexperienced Punjab middle order weren't able to turn around the situation as there were signs of variable bounce and little pace to work with. Pune's combination of quick, skiddy pacemen (Nehra and Dinda) and tidy spinners proved tough to score off and Ganguly will be delighted with how well suited they seem to be at their new home. Dinda had another good outing with the ball with 3-0-13-1 and Samuels completed his MoM performance, even opening the bowling, and took 4-0-23-1. Pune had to fight off interest from Mumbai to get the West Indian and will be thrilled at his all round performances so far. Bipul Sharma showed off some big hitting when the pressure was off but in truth the contest had been over for a long time as they fell short at 144/8.
What was materialising into a tight game was turned on its head by an incredible 19th over. Steve Smith and Pandey cashed in on an over that totally changed the game and KXIP never got back into it. It highlighted how fine the margins can be in 20/20 cricket, PWI now have 2 from 2 and KXIP yet to pick up a win.
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