Pune Warriors India (PWI), which lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first match, will now take on Kings XI Punjab, which will be playing their first match of the IPL sixth edition. The match will be played at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune on Sunday.
Overview:
Both the teams have pool of talented players but have failed to perform. Kings XI Punjab reached the semi finals in the inaugural season but their performance thereafter was not impressive. The team will be looking forward to start in the IPL sixth season on a winning nod.
Pune Warriors India's outing in the IPL has been disappointing, and the defeat in the first match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad might have wounded them. They will be keen to win the second match in order to stay in the competition.
The teams have met four times in the past, and Pune Warriors India won on three of the occasions.
Team News:
Pune Warriors India: The team will expect their top order - Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey and Marlon Samuels - to give a good start so that explosive batsmen like Yuvraj Singh and Ross Taylor can add some quick runs. The performance of the top order in the last match was far from satisfactory, and they need to pull up their socks this time.
They need their bowlers like Ashok Dinda, Marlon Samuels, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rahul Sharma to take wickets at regular intervals and restrict the score of the opponent.
Kings XI Punjab: The team has good batting line-up in skipper Adam Gilchrist, David Hussey, Luke Pomersbach and Azhar Mahmood. Other batsmen like Dimitri Mascarenhas, Mandeep Singh and Nitin Saini can be dangerous too. However, they will miss the service of Shaun Marsh who has been ruled out due to injury.
In bowling department, they have pace bowlers like Ryan Harris, Manpreet Gony and Praveen Kumar, and experienced spinner Piyush Chawla.
Prediction:
Pune Warriors India have a poor record at home, winning only two of the eight matches played, but they have an edge over Kings XI Punjab. They are still the favourite to win on Sunday.
SQUADS
Pune Warriors India: Angelo Mathews (c), Aaron Finch, Abhishek Nayar, Ajantha Mendis, Ali Murtaza, Anustup Majumdar, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harpreet Singh, Ishwar Pandey, Kane Richardson, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Luke Wright, Mahesh Rawat, Manish Pandey, Marlon Samuels, Mitchell Marsh, Mithun Manhas, Parveez Rasool, Rahul Sharma, Raiphi Gomez, Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor, Shrikant Wagh, Steve Smith, Tirumalasetti Suman, Tamim Iqbal, Udit Birla, Yuvraj Singh, Wayne Parnell
Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (C), Azhar Mahmood, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, David Hussey, David Miller, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Harmeet Singh Bansal, Luke Pomersbach, Manan Vohra, Mandeep Singh, Manpreet Gony, Nitin Saini, Parvinder Awana, Paul Valthaty, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Rajagopal Sathish, Ryan Harris, Sandeep Sharma, Shaun Marsh, Siddharth Chitnis, Sunny Singh
Where to Watch Live
The match will begin at 4:00 pm IST and will be telecast live on Sony Set Max channel.
