Pune Tops the table
PUNE: Pune Warriors top the IPL points table with their third win in fourth game. Ryder was the main contributor in a closely contested game.
He was well supported by Smith at the other end. Ryder makes 73 runs not out in 56 balls and shielded one end. Smith joins the Ryder with Pune needing 66 in 44 balls.
He played superbly and made 44 runs in just 22 balls. Pune reached the target with four balls remaining. Yo Mahesh was the only bowler to pick up the wicket.
Chennai won the toss and elected to bat. They made a good start with Plessis and Vijay adding 43 runs in 6.1 overs. Raina, Dhoni and Jadeja continues the good work with their decent innings. In the end Chennai set a challenging target of 156 runs. Rahul sharma pick two wickets.
Brief Scores:
Chennai Super Kings 155 for 5 (Jadeja 44, du Plessis 43)
Pune Warriors 156 for 3 (Ryder 73*, Smith 44*)
Sourav Ganguly:”It was good, great cricketing pitch. When you win against a team like Chennai you get a buzz. Proud of the way the bowlers bowled, Ashish Nehra and Ashok Dinda did a good job. Smith has improved immensely from what I had seen last.”
MS Dhoni: “It was even-steven, but our execution wasn’t good, we have struggled in the first six and the last few overs. Just wanted to check who wanted to bowl, asked YoMi whether he wanted to bowl and he looked positive, so threw him the ball. That is how you learn.”
Jesse Ryder, man of the match: “I wanted to bat through the innings, I wanted to continue with that idea, Steven Smith made it easy for me to do that. This was a different track to the one we played on in the first game and made it easy to play the strokes. The home crowd is amazing and they are supporting us well. Smith did a good job too. I didn’t want to throw my wicket away after getting a flier.”
