Pune look to arrest slide (Preview)

At Chepauk Stadium, visitors Pune couldn’t match home team Chennai in any aspect of the game resulting in the one-sided affair. Now a day later, Chennai travel to Pune’s den and Yuvraj Singh led side will be keen to return the favour and for a turnaround.

Many would dub it as a revenge game, but, for Pune, in their second game against Chennai in three days will be more than that. They are on a slide after starting their maiden IPL season with a bang losing three games on a row. Latest being against Chennai courtesy a pathetic show in the field and lack of intent when they were chasing a target that should have been achieved.

Approach to a small run chase was agonizingly inexplicable which cost Pune the match after putting up a spirited show with the ball. It was uncharacteristic Yuvraj innings that largely contributed to the loss with flamboyant left hander failing to get the boundaries away when needed and consuming 44 balls for his 34 runs.

For Yuvraj and company, there are hordes of problems on his plate to be addressed if team has to get back to the winning ways. For that they have to have improve their fielding which was under par last game missing easy run-out chances, dropping catches and giving far too many runs in the out-field. So Pune will have to improve their all round game to bring about a change in their dipping fortunes and waning confidence.

The win, on other hand, was a welcome and morale boosting one for home team halting Chennai's losing streak and propelling them to the fourth spot on the points chart, whereas Pune's free-fall after a stellar start in the tournament continued and they have now lost three consecutive matches.

Opening batsman Michael Hussey continued with his good form hitting a match winning 61 and runs have also come from Murali Vijay and skipper MS Dhoni to give Chennai reliability in the batting order. They need to shore up their lower order batting though as hard hitting all-rounder Albie Morkel has failed big time with the bat this season.

Chennai strength lies in their varied bowling unit that has pace and control of Doug Bollinger, wicket taking abilities of Morkel , R Ashwin’s ability to bowl when the slog is on and Suraj Randiv, Shadab Jakati and Suresh Raina playing a support act. Talk of fielding, only Mumbai team can boast off a fielding unit like that of Chennai and how good Dhoni led side is on field was evident in the field on Monday with fielding saving more than 2o runs and taking a couple of stunning catches.

With momentum in favour of Chennai and visitors having a core group of players that played for them last three seasons as well, Chennai will go into the match with edge over home team. But then, nature of twenty-20 cricket tells us that on its day any team can emerge victorious and Yuvraj’s Pune will be reminding themselves of that after losing to Chennai without putting up a fight.

CHENNAI

Players who can make impact…

Albie Morkel…The South African all rounder known for his long distance hitting hasn't had a good workout in many matches and he would be itching to launch some of the cricket balls into orbit. Sure, if he gets going the Chennai bowlers would find it a lot easier to bowl.

R Ashwin…The Carrom spinner has all kinds of tricks up his sleeve and baffled Pune batsmen with his variety in the last match. He not only takes wickets but bowls economically as well and that is so important in the twenty-over game. The DY Patil pitch traditionally helps spin and it shouldn't be a surprise if he again comes up with the goods.

SQUAD

Abhinav Mukund, Albie Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Ganapathi Vignesh, George Bailey, Joginder Sharma, K Vasudevadas, Michael Hussey, MS Dhoni (c)(wk), Murali Vijay, Nuwan Kulasekara, R Ashwin, S Badrinath, Scott Styris, Shadab Jakati ,Srikkanth Anirudha, Sudeep Tyagi, Suraj Randiv, Suresh Raina, Tim Southee, Wriddhiman Saha,Yo Mahesh.

PUNE

Players who can make impact…

Yuvraj Singh…No matter how good or bad a position the team is in, Yuvi is the key man for the team. A potentially devastating batsmen and one of the cleanest hitters in the game thesedays, he will look to make amends for his recent failures with the bat. And, Chennai would be weary of that.

Robin Uthappa...Another impact player in the Pune squad, he can turn on the heat at any time of the match. Pune fans would be hoping for some fireworks from the player who is so highly rated in the Twenty-20 format.

SQUAD

Yuvraj Singh (c) 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.