Battle of survival (Preview)

Even after losing seven games on a trot, Pune can still manage a back-door entry into the top four provided they win their five league matches by massive margins and results in other matches go their way. Ifs and buts apart, Pune would be in a very bad state of mind having been on the losing side game after game. Likewise, Punjab’s journey has hit a wall after the initial burst; four successive losses have pushed them to the bottom. Howver, Punjab are in a slightly better position than Pune with one more win and a game at hand.

The big picture is that this being a battle of survival would bring the best out of both the teams looking to arrest the slump with a big win.

The Mohali pitch usually aids pace with prodigious seam and swing movement. The hosts have a decent pace battery. Praveen Kumar thrives on helpful surfaces and can do a lot of damage early on. The two Ryans- McLaren and Harris are primarily seam bowlers and should feel at home in the conditions. The punishment from Chris Gayle in the last match would have dented the confidence of Punjab bowlers but they have to treat that as a one off chance.

The home batsmen after few blazing innings at the beginning IPL-4 have not performed regularly. Adam Gilchrist and Paul Valthaty have fired in unison only once, only Shaun Marsh has been a reliable man in that batting order. The Indian boys in the home team- Abhishek Nayar and Dinesh Karthik haven’t contributed anything substantial with the bat. They will have to raise their game to propel their team ahead in the race for a spot among the last four.

Yuvraj Singh’s Pune have just fallen apart. They are the Kolkata of this IPL. A loss here and the Shahrukh Khan owned franchise’s dubious record of nine successive losses would be in danger. Skipper Yuvraj has been the lone man standing for them so far but for some strange reason he has batted low down the order. Pune bought Robin Uthappa hoping for a repeat of his previous IPL showing but that hasn’t been coming. The arrival of Sourav Ganguly would be something to cheer for the Pune fans but Dada has got so little time to settle down, he has to come with all cylinders firing to get his new team out of misery. It would be interesting to see the combination Pune chose to accommodate him.

PUNJAB

Players who can make impact…

Adam Gilchrist…The crazy run-out in the last match apart Gilly’s trademark power hitting hasn’t been coming in a long time. The weak Kochi bowling is a God-send opportunity to get some runs under his belt.

Praveen Kumar….He can swing the cherry both ways at will. A helpful Mohali wicket would make him more than a handful for the struggling Kochi batting.

SQUAD

Abhishek Nayar, Adam Gilchrist (c)(wk), Amit Yadav, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, David Hussey, David Miller, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Love Ablish, Mandeep Singh, Nathan Rimmington, Nitin Saini, Paras Dogra, Paul Valthaty, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Ryan Harris, Shalabh Srivastava, Shaun Marsh, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh, Vikramjeet Malik, Ryan McLaren.

PUNE

Players who can make impact…

Yuvraj Singh…What else has he to do to earn a win for his team. The all-rounder has scored runs, taken wickets but some of his decisions like sending an out of form Manish Pandey at the top haven’t reaped any rewards. He would want to set the record straight against Punjab.

Sourav Ganguly…All eyes will on this man for he is making a belated entry into IPL-4. His presence would be a source of inspiration for the younger brigade in the team, but his contribution with the bat would be more important.

SQUAD

Yuvraj Singh (c) Sourav Ganguly, A Jhunjhunwala, Alfonso Thomas, Angelo Mathews, Ashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Callum Ferguson, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Ganesh Gaikwad, Graeme Smith, Harpreet Singh, Harshad Khadiwale, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Jerome Taylor, Jesse Ryder, Kamran Khan, Manish Pandey, Mitchell Marsh, Mithun Manhas, Monish Mishra, Murali Kartik, Nathan McCullum, Rahul Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Sachin Rana, Shrikant Mundhe, Shrikant Wagh, Tim Paine (wk), Wayne Parnell