Finch powers new boys to second win

The match in a tweet: Aaron Finch scores second consecutive fifty as the Lions win battle of the newcomers to beat the Supergiants by seven wickets.

The Aussies: It was a mixed night for the Australian contingent with Aaron Finch named man-of-the-match but Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh and James Faulkner not making much of an impact. Finch hammered his second consecutive half-century to be the tournament's leading run-scorer, while Gujarat teammate Faulkner conceded 15 from the two overs he bowled. Marsh also went wicketless with the ball (his one over went for 10) and made just 7 from 11 balls with the bat as he and Smith (5 off 6) were tied down and then dismissed by Ravi Jadeja.

The key battle - KP v DJ: The hosts won the toss and put Pune into bat, after which Ajinkya Rahane gave them a rousing start. He added 27 with Faf du Plessis, 21 of them off his bat, before being trapped LBW by Praveen Tambe. It brought Kevin Pietersen to the crease and the wandering Englishman took control of proceedings immediately. He was harsh on left-arm spinner Shadab Jakati, and skipper Suresh Raina was forced to bring Dwayne Bravo into the attack earlier than anticipated. Pietersen went after the West Indian straight away as well, picking his slower deliveries with great ease and depositing the bowler for a huge six. This encouraged Du Plessis to open up at the other end and he too started attacking the bowling. He hit a six each off Jakati, Bravo and Jadeja, forcing Raina to take Bravo out of the attack. To his credit, Raina juggled his bowlers around a lot, a trick he probably picked up from good friend and opposing captain MS Dhoni. And it worked a treat as Bravo returned to bowl Pietersen - with another slower ball - in the 14th over, turning the tide in the Lion’s favour. The Englishman had scored 37 off 31, and was dismissed at a most unfortunate time for his side.

The turning point: Not long after KP's crucial dismissal, Jadeja tied up Smith and Marsh in knots as the Australian duo struggled to get him away. Much to the delight of his home crowd, the left-arm spinner accounted for both, finishing with 2-18. It didn’t help Pune that du Plessis was only crawling at this stage, scoring 19 off 10 after reaching his half-century. He finished with 69 off 43, stumped off Tambe in the 16th over, the leggie taking 2-33. What should have been an easy total in excess of 160 turned out to be a hard climb, made possible only by Dhoni’s 22 off 10, with two fours, a six and some lightening quick running between the wickets.

The power pair: Finch then struck his second consecutive half-century in the IPL, following up his 74 against Kings XI Punjab with 50 off 33 to regain control of the Orange Cap as the tournament's leading run-scorer. He added 85 off 51 with Brendon McCullum at the top of the order to make Pune’s score of 5-163 seemed grossly inadequate. Finch peeled three boundaries off Ishant Sharma's opening two-over spell and then took 19 off Murugan Ashwin’s first over. It drove Dhoni to despair as he juggled his bowling around, but to no avail, as medium-pacer Rajat Bhatia was carted for two sixes as soon as he brought on to bowl. At the other end, McCullum didn’t need much invitation as he smacked RP Singh out of the attack with two mighty sixes in the third over. Together, Finch and McCullum brought up 50 off just 28 balls in a stern warning to future opponents.

The missed chance: Finch fell immediately after his half-century, passing the baton to McCullum who thundered his way to 49 off 31. This is where the Pune spin twins, Murugan and Ravi Ashwin, came into slight ascendancy. The leggie Ashwin had dismissed Finch and would finish with an impressive 2-31. Meanwhile, McCullum carted the off-spinner for 13 runs in the 12th over and yet, the match would have swung in Pune’s favour had Dhoni not missed a low stumping off that over’s last ball. McCullum eventually fell two overs later, but enough damage had been done for Pune to force a comeback. Raina and Bravo added 27 runs without any major hiccups as the required rate dipped below seven and they reached the target with 12 deliveries to spare. 

The stat: Dhoni and Raina played together in 129 matches for Chennai Super Kings in the past eight IPL seasons. Playing for different teams now, this was the first time they were pitted against each other. Also, during his whirlwind knock, Dhoni became the sixth Indian batsman to cross 3000 runs in the IPL.

The wash-up: They won in Mohali with a patchy performance but in their first home game, Gujarat Lions romped to a seven-wicket victory with ease. Two wins out of two takes them to top of the table, not too shabby for the IPL newcomers. Meanwhile, the other new boys Pune will be worried how Dhoni quickly runs out of bowling options when their pace attack is taken for runs. They need to overcome their dependence on the two Ashwins. 

The next stop: Rising Pune Supergiants will travel north to play Kings XI Punjab in Mohali and hope to recover their winning touch on Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, Gujarat Lions will travel to play Mumbai Indians on Saturday evening.