The issues of old came back to haunt the Pune Warriors India as they went down to the Deccan Chargers in the 62nd game of the Indian Premier League. Both sides are now out of the tournament, and even if Pune would have won this one, they wouldn’t have had too many chances to go through to the playoffs. 
The batting has been Pune’s biggest concern in the tournament so far. They have not been able to do much with the strength on paper and for long, they have lost early wickets. The same seemed to have been stalled when Pune played Deccan in their previous game at Hyderabad, but repeated to push the side back in this game.
Ironically, the batting had been strengthened for the Pune Warriors this game. Callum Ferguson batted at the number seven position in the order while the likes of Mitchell Marsh and Wayne Parnell, both batted at eight and nine in the order – making it seem like one of the better ones in the tournament.
And that was probably the reason why the side fell apart as quickly as they did. The top order batsmen played too many shots in the hope that the ones down the order would do the job and by the time the lower-order came into being, the side had capitulated rather badly.
Jesse Ryder and Manish Pandey added 31 for the first wicket off four overs before a sizzling stroke from the Kiwi went straight into the hands of the cover fielder. Sourav Ganguly, who had earlier made a comeback to the IPL, lasted all of five balls for his duck. 10 runs later in the seventh over, Manish Pandey’s attempt to cut a ball on his pads saw him bowler, while Amit Mishra returned in his next over to pick up two wickets off two balls to peg the side back to 45/5.
It was only some gritty batting from Marsh and Parnell that carried the side through to a respectable 136/8 in their 20 overs.
The Chargers were provided a good start by Sunny Sohal and Shikhar Dhawan. They added 67 in the first eight overs, laying a strong foundation for the target that was achieved in the final over of the innings. Sohal top-scored with 34, while Dhawan, Sangakkara and Duminy all scored 20s.
Mishra’s two-wicket haul won him the man of the match award.