Finch sizzling knock helps Pune taste first victory of IPL 6

Tags: Indian Premier League - 2013, Pune Warriors Vs Rajasthan Royals 13th Match at Pune - Apr 11, 2013, Aaron James Finch, Rahul Sharad Dravid

Published on: Apr 11, 2013

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

Pune Warriors tasted their first victory of IPL 6 beating Rajasthan Royals at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium by 8 wickets. Australian Aaron Finch playing his first match of the tournament...

By BV Swagath

Pune Warriors tasted their first victory of IPL 6 beating Rajasthan Royals at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium by 8 wickets. Australian Aaron Finch playing his first match of the tournament scripted an easy win with a sizzling knock of 64 from 53 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes. Along with fellow opener Robin Uthappa who scored 32 from 16 balls (with 3 fours and 2 sixes), Finch made short work of a target of 146. The Pune spectators had a glimpse of Yuvraj Singh who struck 2 fours and 2 sixes in an unbeaten 28 from 23 balls to finish the match in style.

Earlier, the Rajasthan Royals were kept down to 145 for 5 having won the toss and electing to bat first. Skipper Rahul Dravid got his second fifty of the season, finishing with a decent knock of 54 from 48 balls with 8 fours. The match started with lots of uncertainties about how the pitch would play. The Rajasthan Royals lost a wicket off the very first ball when Kushal Perera got lbw to a ball that stayed low from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Few minutes later, Ajinkya Rahane (30 from 27 balls) got hit on the glove by one that kicked off length. However, the pitch played a lot better than anticipated as shown by Dravid’s fluent strokeplay.

For the Pune Warriors, leggie Rahul Sharma had a fantastic outing taking 2 for 16 off his 4 overs. Yuvraj Singh also bowled tightly for his 2 for 27 in 4 overs.

Toss and Teams: Rajasthan Royals have won the toss and elected to bat first against hosts Pune Warriors at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune. The Royals have been depleted by injuries to Shane Watson, Shaun Tait and Rahul Shukla. The trio have been replaced with Kushal Perera, Faulknet and Harmeet Singh.

Pune Warriors who are yet to taste a victory in IPL 6 have replaced Marlon Samuels and Manish Pandey with Aaron Finch and Yuvraj Singh.

Pune Warriors: Robin Uthappa (WK), Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Tirumalsetti Suman, Ross Taylor, Abhishek Nayar, Angelo Mathews (C), Mitchell Marsh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Ashok Dinda

Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane, Kushal Janith Perera, Rahul Dravid (C), Brad Hodge, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Dishant Yagnik (WK), Kevon Cooper, Siddharth Trivedi, S Sreesanth, Harmeet Singh

Related News