Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Pune lose for the seventh consecutive time !




It is LLLLLLL for Pune now, their seventh successive defeat. Mumbai's bowling proved to be formidable, as they restricted Pune to 139/7.

Earlier Mumbai scored 160/7 after being inserted into bat and T Suman smashed 36 off 16 balls and Keiron Pollard hit a magnifienct 29 to post a mammoth total of 8 per over.

Malinga led the Mumbai attack with the figures of 3/25, followed by Bajji ( 1/17), M Patel ( 1/30) and Pollard ( 1/36).

When Pune chased 161. Jesse Ryder was out first ball to Bajji. Manish Pandey became the Man of the Hour with a brilliant 59 but then that could not save hapless Pune, who have now lost seven matches in a row. Pune and Kochi can be excused as they are inexperienced in IPL.

Pandey's 59 came off 47 balls and it was simply blitzkreig. Uthappa remained unbeaten with 34 off 26 and these two resisted the Mumbai attack. Yuvraj hit two sixes but then got out to a Malinga bouncer, held brilliantly by Munaf.

Earlier, Mumbai was just 65 off 10 overs but then a hero emerged, T Suman, who blasted three sixes and three fours. It was Pollard's brilliance (29 off 21 ) which saw Mumbai reach a respectable 160!

Rahul Sharma bowled superbly with figures of 4-0-7-2 but then his great work was neutrallised by Pollard and Suman. Yuvraj dismissed Sachin (24) and Rayudu (27).

Mumbai's opening partnership continued to a problematic, as Sachin's new partner, Blizzard perished in the third over, with the score at 18/1. Then Rayudu and Sachin stepped up the run rate. Rayudu hooked Taylor and then scooped him for two fours to increase the run rate. Sachin glanced and edged Wagh for fours and took Mumbai to 49/1. Uthappa failed to run out Sachin. Yuvraj then came back into the attack and removed Sachin, who was caught by J Ryder. In 35 balls, Sachin had put on 40 runs off 35 balls with Rayudu. Rayudu holed out off Yuvraj and then Suman and Pollard took over. R Sharma also holed out. Suman hit Thomas for two consecutive fours and then hit him fo six in the 16th over and Mumbai was in the driver's seat. Ultimately Suman holed out to Rahul and was caught by Manhas. Then Pollard hit two fours and a six off Thomas and Mumbai reached 160.

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