[1]Pune Warriors began their Indian Premier League campaign in style with a thumping seven wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab at the DY Patil Stadium here Sunday.
The architects of the victory were the seamers who restricted Kings XI Punjab to 112/8 after the visitors elected to bat on a track that had grass on it and offered assistance to the pace bowlers.
South Africa's Alfonso Thomas (2-27) and Shrikant Wagh (3-16) exploited the pace and bounce of the wicket and reduced Kings XI Punjab to 45-6 before Ryan McLaren scored an unbeaten 51 to add some respectability to the score.
Pune Warriors got a jolt in the first ball, losing Graeme Smith, who was caught by McLaren at extra cover off Praveen Kumar.
Jesse Ryder (31) and Mithun Manhas (35) then added 60 runs at a quick pace. The two were, however, dismissed in consecutive overs. It was at this point that Kings XI Punjab dropped two easy catches in consecutive overs and that proved costly.
Nathan Rimmington gave a life to Robin Uthappa (22 not out) and Dinesh Karthik (21 not out) put down Yuvraj Singh in the slips.
Uthappa and Yuvraj immediately made Pune Warriors pay with some big shots. Uthappa slammed Abhishek Nayar for a four and six in the 12th over. Yuvraj then tonked Praveen for a six and finished with a four off Nayar.
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