PUNE: A strangulating bowling performance helped Pune Warriors nail their second successive IPL-2012 win as they overwhelmed Kings XI Punjab by 22 runs at the brand new Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium here, yesterday. Pune skipper Sourav Ganguly elected to bat and saw his side muster 166-6, thanks to a stabilising 81-run partnership between Marlon Samuels (46, 39b, 4×4, 2×6) and Robin Uthappa (40, 33b, 2×4, 2×6), and some lusty hitting down the order by Steven Smith.

The bowlers then came back and prevented Kings XI’s chase to attain any momentum, especially once the visitors’ principal wreckers – openers Paul Valthaty and Adam Gilchrist – were run out within the first four overs, with just nine on the board.

Punjab made 19-2 in the mandatory Powerplay, and failed to get moving even after that as Ashok Dinda, man of the match Marlon Samuels, Ashish Nehra (barring an inconsequential assault by Piyush Chawla) and Rahul Sharma refused to give anything away.

David Hussey promised much during his time in the middle, but was bowled by Rahul, leaving Punjab at a stage where virtually every ball needed to be sent to the boundary, and a flurry of wickets resulted as the remaining batsmen attempted to clear the ropes.
Bipul Sharma sparkled with an unbeaten 35 (18b, 3×4, 2×6), but by then Punjab’s fate was already sealed.

Earlier, Pune Warriors took the field at the new venue, finally playing on their rightful home ground after having spent the entire last season treating the D.Y. Patil Stadium as their own turf. Ganguly strode out to the middle with New Zealand firebrand Jesse Ryder – a double leftie combination to open the innings – and struck a few edgy boundaries before he was caught at mid-off off a Dimitri Mascarenhas slower ball.

Ryder was run-out to a close-range direct hit from Praveen Kumar, and Pune had mustered just 38 at the end of the mandatory Powerplay, both openers back in the pavilion – as Praveen bowled out his quota at the start.

Robin Uthappa and Marlon Samuels resurrected the innings with an 81-run stand in a shade over 10 overs. Samuels was particularly severe on the spinners, taking sixes off Bipul and Chawla, and was bowled trying to smash seamer Harmeet Singh out of the park.

Uthappa started slowly and needed nine balls to get his first five runs. He warmed up to the challenge with a huge six off Bipul and followed it up with a monstrous one-handed maximum against Harmeet, who had the last laugh when he bowled the batsman with a slow leg-cutter.

Ten balls were left when Uthappa departed. Harmeet bowled a succession of beamers and was called off. Bipul returned to complete the four balls remaining in the 18th over, and conceded three sixes – two to Steven Smith and one to Manish Pandey.
Another Smith six laced the final over, as Pune scored 34 runs in the last 10 deliveries.