IPL 2017 | The Maxwell show helps Punjab secure win over Pune

Brief scores: Rising Pune Supergiant 163/6 ( Ben Stokes 50, Manoj Tiwary 40*; Sandeep Sharma 2/33, Swapnil Singh 1/14) lost to Kings XI Punjab 164/4 (Glenn Maxwell 44*, David Miller 30*; Imran Tahir 2/29, Ashok Dinda 1/26) by 6 wickets.

After registering a win in their first game, Pune came to Indore with a positive mindset while the Glenn Maxwell-led Punjab had a better understanding of the wicket after playing two practice matches on the surface as a buildup to the tournament. In his first game as the captain of the team, Maxwell won the toss and elected to field first.

Punjab pacers strike early to send Pune reeling

Precision and sustained pace are a great virtue that every fast bowler in the world wants to have in their arsenal and Sandeep Sharma showed off his skills with the ball giving away just five runs in first two overs while bagging the wicket of Mayank Agarwal as well. On a pitch that appeared two-paced from the outset, Punjab managed to keep the Pune batters at bay, picking up wickets on regular intervals with the visitor's heroes from the first game, Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith, falling cheaply. Ben Stokes and MS Dhoni tried to consolidate the innings with the latter taking the initiative by playing a few big shots as Pune reached the midway point with the score at 63/3.

Dhoni’s failure compounds Pune’s woes

Having scored at just over a run a ball in the first 10 overs, the Pune fans would have been looking at Dhoni to provide the inspiration. However, they were left disappointed as Dhoni’s innings was cut short when he tamely hit the ball back at Swapnil Singh, who made no mistake with the catch. Pune looked to be headed to a disappointing finish but Stokes and Manoj Tiwary turned the match around. Stokes started going on the offensive against the Punjab bowling attack after a fairly docile start to his innings, while Tiwary chipped in with some runs from the other end. The most expensive foreign player in the IPL history completed his fifty in 30 balls but was soon sent packing by Axar Patel with the scorecard reading 133/5 after 18 overs. Tiwary and Daniel Christian, however, scored 30 runs off the last two overs to take Pune to a respectable score of 163/6.  

Slow and steady set up an exciting finish

After falling at least 20 runs short of a good score on the Indore track, the onus was on the Pune bowlers to give the team a good start and Ashok Dinda redeemed himself, after conceding 30 runs in the last over against Mumbai, by giving away just 14 runs in his first two overs along with claiming the wicket of Manan Vohra. Saha started well smashing Stokes for two back to back boundaries but the introduction of Imran Tahir saw the Punjab keeper losing his furniture and making the long walk back to the dressing room after failing to pick up the South African’s googly. That forced Maxwell to promote left-hander Axar Patel up in the order to counter Tahir, and the Indian along with Amla patiently navigated the “home” side to 73/2 in 10 overs.

Maxwell the captain leads the team to win

But in T20 cricket, execution matters much more than the patience, Amla’s stoicism had a little to do on a track that belied expectations of a batting paradise and making his IPL debut, under-19 star, Rahul Chahar dismissed him with a flighted delivery outside the off-stump. Axar, too, perished to a Tahir delivery after scoring 24 valuable runs. With 69 required off 53 balls, it was up to the experienced duo of Maxwell and David Miller to see off the chase and the Punjab captain answered his team’s call smashing the Pune bowlers to all ends of the ground. Maxwell scored 44 off just 20 balls as Punjab chased down the Pune target with six balls to spare.