Led by Sourav Ganguly from the front, Pune Warriors got the better of Delhi Daredevils by 20 runs in the IPL encounter on Saturday. Ganguly scored 41 runs and later scalped two crucial wickets in Warriors victory. In all praise for his skipper, Steven Smith said that Ganguly\u2019s gutsy performance played a stellar role in beating Daredevils.<\/p>\n
“We played better cricket. Jesse Ryder and Sourav Ganguly were outstanding with the bat in the middle overs,” said Smith, who scored a quick-fire 13-ball-34, at the post-match press conference.<\/p>\n
“Ganguly played really well. He brought himself on to bowl at a crucial time and got those two wickets. It was pretty gutsy from him.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Sunil Gavaskar writes in TOI that Deccan Chargers coach has seem to blame the fielding and the catching for their losses. \u201cInstead he should take the fielding coach to task and ask him to work on the boys harder. Hiding behind excuses is no way to go and this is where Mahendra Singh Dhoni stands out as a skipper. He hardly ever lays the blame on any player, but usually gives the credit to the opposition rather than point fingers at his teammates. The fact is that Team Hyderabad have not got the combination right and so they have struggled,\u201d adds Gavaskar, stating that they should not be allowing teams to chase over 160 when they have the world\u2019s best fast bowler, Dale Steyn, in their ranks. <\/p>\n
\u201cTeam Kolkata have begun to find their rhythm and are looking better with every game. Once Yusuf Pathan gets going, they will be even more formidable. Manoj Tiwary also has not quite fired and the big plus is the young Debrata Das, who looks as if he is enjoying himself and he can belt the ball too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Lasith Malinga in his column in TOI writes that he won\u2019t be playing again on Sunday due to a sore back but given that this is a long tournament there is no sense in taking any risk and the management were keen for me to rest properly, so I can recover completely. \u201cI took the opportunity to return home to see my family in Sri Lanka. It\u2019s always such a treat to spend time with them and that\u2019s been really nice, although it will be a bit strange not sitting in the dug-out for the game and I will feel a bit nervous watching on TV,\u201d writes Malinga, adding that he will be returning to Mumbai early next week. <\/p>\n
\u201cFingers crossed, I\u2019ll be back playing very soon. I\u2019ve been pretty happy with my performances thus far and I\u2019m keen to help the team during a tough week that includes a double header versus Punjab plus another duel with both Delhi and Hyderabad.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to a report in The Tribune, Kings XI Punjab\u2019s stand-in skipper David Hussey confirmed that Adam Gilchrist, the regular skipper, will be out for at least 2 weeks. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is his first injury in about 16 years, so he is obviously very disappointed. By the looks of it, he will be out for about 2 weeks, and we will see it how it goes after that,\u201d Hussey said last night after his team\u2019s loss.
\u201cI felt we were about 10-15 runs short in the end. Of course, Gayle and AB de Villiers batted brilliantly, and they are probably among the top batsmen in the world, so it is disappointing, but we will be looking to bounce back from this loss,\u201d Hussey added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Led by Sourav Ganguly from the front, Pune Warriors got the better of Delhi Daredevils by 20 runs in the IPL encounter on Saturday. Ganguly scored 41 runs and later scalped two crucial wickets in Warriors victory. In all praise for his skipper, Steven Smith said that Ganguly\u2019s gutsy performance played a stellar role in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[2069,669,902,544,1745,543,1276],"class_list":["post-5167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers","tag-dale-steyn","tag-lasith-malinga","tag-pune-warriors","tag-sourav-ganguly","tag-steven-smith","tag-sunil-gavaskar","tag-yusuf-pathan"],"yoast_head":"\n