Pune give Delhi wooden spoon

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Pune Warriors avoided a bottom finish after defeating the Delhi Daredevils by 38 runs in their last league game at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium here on Sunday.
Daredevils repeated the dismal show of 2011 again this year, finishing last with just six points. Warriors maintained their dubious consistency of registering four wins in every IPL season so far.
Skipper Aaron Finch (52 of 34b, 3x4, 4x6) struck his fourth half-century to give the Warriors a solid platform. Luke Wright (44 off 23b, 7x4, 1x6) and Angelo Mathews (30 not out off 22b, 2x6) blazed away 65 runs in the last five overs to take Warriors to 172/5.
The pair shared 72 runs for the fifth wicket in 37 balls to enthrall the partisan crowd here, who turned up to support sinking Warriors despite intense heat and the fixing cloud over the tournament.
Chasing a stiff target, the Delhi Daredevils managed 134/9 after being put on the backfoot by Ali Murtuza. The left-arm spinner recovered well after getting a smacking from Chris Gayle (0/45 in two overs) in Bengaluru on April 23 to come up with impressive figures of 3/15 on Sunday.
Delhi continued to tinker with their batting line-up as David Warner came to open with Mahela Jayawardene. Warner (2) was dropped on 1 but he fell to Wayne Parnell soon after Murtuza sent Jayawardene (14), Virender Sehwag (11) and Bharat Chipli (16) back in the dugout to kill the visitors’ chase.
Ben Rohrer (7) played on to Ashoke Dinda (2/21) who got his length right finally for hosts. C.M. Gautam (30 off 23b, 2x4, 1x6) and Irfan Pathan (24 off 28b, 2x4) tried their bit with a partnership of 54 runs for the sixth wicket but the asking rate was too much to counter.
Mathews (3/24 in three overs) did the damage in the middle. Parnell was wayward, conceding (1/36 in three overs).
Earlier, Finch and Robin Uthappa continued what they have been doing consistently for their team with a 38-run stand. Uthappa was first to go caught by Warner at point off Umesh Yadav.
Finch went after Yadav to smash two sixes and a four but lost his partner Manish Pandey (10), cleaned up by Shahbaz Nadeem.
Finch continued to flourish but lobbed a shot to diving Sehwag at mid-wicket off Siddarth Kaul. The Australian finished the tournament with his team’s top scorer with 456 runs in 14 games.
Yuvraj Singh (3) survived a close lbw call on his first ball from Nadeem but he couldn’t make it big to sum up his dismal Indian Premier League season. The hosts’ lost way a bit reaching 107/4 in 15 overs but Wright and Mathews got them their highest total at home.
Kaul (2/27) was impressive again and Nadeem (1/21) kept things tight. But pacers Yadav (1/52), Irfan Pathan (1/34) and Morne Morkel (0/36) were expensive. Yadav’s penultimate over of the innings went for 24 runs.
Wicket had bit of grass on it but was dry prompting Finch to bat first. The shot making wasn’t easy for new batsmen at the crease.