Clinical Pune restrict Mumbai to 120 for nine

[1]

Pune Warriors produced a clinical bowling and fielding display to restrict Mumbai Indians to a modest 120 for nine in an Indian Premier League match on Thursday.

Asked to bowl, young Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ashish Nehra shared four wickets between them as Pune bowlers stuck to their task from the onset, barring a few overs in the middle, to stop Mumbai from posting a challenging total at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium.

The bowlers were complemented well by Pune fielders as they inflicted as many as four run outs.

Sachin Tendulkar top-scored for Mumbai a 35-ball 34 and together with James Franklin (25) added 50 runs for the opening stand, which was the only highlight of the visitors' innings.

Electing to bat, Mumbai witnessed a sedate start as the first three overs yielded just seven runs, which included a maiden second over from Ashok Dinda (1/34) to Tendulkar.

But Tendulkar settled the score with Dinda and opened the floodgates for Mumbai, hitting the pacer for three consecutive fours to pick up 13 runs of his next over.

Franklin also joined the party soon and welcomed Nehra with a six and two fours to score 14 runs of his opening over.

It took a young Kumar to put the brakes on Mumbai when Franklin top-edged a simple catch to Mithun Manhas at long-on.

New man Rohit Sharma did not trouble the scorers much as he fell victim of a run out.

Tendulkar, on the other hand, went about his business in a quiet manner scoring his runs in ones and twos with occasional boundaries in between.

But after a dismal opening over, Nehra made a strong comeback in his second spell and scalped two wickets, which included that of dangerman Tendulkar.

The left-arm pacer tasted a big success in the 12th over when he accounted for a set Tendulkar, who edged one to Robin Uthappa behind the stumps. Nehra then induced a top-edge from Robin Peterson (13) in his next over which Pune skipper Sourav Ganguly gladly accepted at long-off.

Ganguly was right on the money with his bowling changes as brought back into the attack in the 15th over, Kumar cleaned up Ambati Rayudu to pick up his second wicket.

Thisara Perera and skipper Harbhajan Singh did not trouble the scorers at all as they fell in successive balls for ducks to sum a horrible outing for Mumbai batsmen.

Towards the end Dinesh Karthik (18 not out) and Lasith Malinga (14) stitched crucial 26 runs for the eighth wicket to help Mumbai touch the 120-run mark.