Hyderabad beat Pune by 22 runs on debut

HYDERABAD: Sunrisers Hyderabad opened their IPL account with a facile win over Pune Warriors by 22 runs on Friday night.

The home team was restricted to 126 for 6 by Pune Warriors in the first knock at the rajiv Gandhi international stadium here. Replying to the total, Pune Warriors were skittled out for 104 runs in 18.5 overs.

South African Dale Steyn took 3 wickets for the loss of 11 runs with Sri Lankan Thisara Perera taking 2 for 29. The highest scorer for Pune was Robin Uthappa at 22.

Yuvraj Singh was stumped by Parthiv off Amit Mishra for 2.

Earlier, electing to field after winning the toss, PW bowled with discipline to restrict the hosts.

Making its debut in the IPL, the new Hyderabad franchise failed to post a huge score as their batsmen struggled against some fine bowling by Ashok Dinda, Bhuvaneswar Kumar and Rahul Sharma.

Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera top scored for the home team with 30 off 18 balls. He hit three boundaries and the only six of the innings.

Dinda was the most successful bowler for PW, claiming two wickets for 39 in his four overs. Buvaneswar Kumar conceded only 17 runs in his four overs and claimed one wicket. Rahul Sharma was also impressive with the figures of 4-0-21-1. Yuvraj Singh bagged one wicket for eight runs in his two overs. Marlon Sameuls also got one wicket.

Earlier, Parthiv Patel and Akshath Reddy made a cautious start, adding 32 runs off 5.2 overs before Ashok Dina gave Pune Warriors the first breakthrough.

It was Patel who tried to give some momentum in the sixth year by hitting Samuels for two boundaries. However, the left hander did not last as he tried to hit Dinda

Kumar Sangakkara joined Reddy to steady the innings but the captain failed to play a big innings. The Sri Lankan, who played a couple of delightful boundaries, was beaten in flight by Rahul Sharma to be cleaned bowled in the 10th over of the innings.

The hosts lost two more wickets in the next five overs with the addition of 27 runs. Local boy Akshath Reddy (27 off 30 balls) was cleaned up by Yuvraj Singh to reduce Sunrisers to 72 for three. Cameron White (10 off 18) also failed to impress.

It was some big hitting by Perera in the slog overs which helped the team to reach a respectable total.