IPL 2013: Amit Mishra’s hat-trick traps Pune Warriors

The leg-spinner,with figures of 4/19,was the most successful bowler for his side,and got able assistance from seamer Thisara Perera (3/20),who,with his twin-strike early on,injected a fresh lease of life into the attack.

There were not enough runs to play with but the bowlers came back from behind to secure a brilliant win away from home.

Pune batsmen will be gutted with the effort as it wasn’t a difficult run-chase at all. The hosts were on their way in attacking fashion as the openers got them off to a good start.

Aaron Finch and Robin Uthappa were dealing in boundaries before Thisara Perera removed the duo in quick succession to trigger the slide.

A quiet phase followed after that. Runs dried up and boundaries were not easy to come. Cameron White marshaled his troops really well and gave the ball to his strike bowlers – Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma.

Sharma lived up to his skipper’s expectations and scalped the dangerous Steven Smith. Steyn was not too far behind either,as the speedster removed Mitchell Marsh.

It was a Mishra show after that,as the spinner used his variations to full effect,and won the fixture for his side.

At the toss,both the captains were not sure about how the pitch will behave. Pune won the toss and decided to use the early advantage to full effect,and picked some early wickets.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar,in particular,used the new ball well as the seamer made some early inroads. Using his gentle swing to full avail,Kumar rattled the Hyderabad top-order,who were reduced to 4/17 early in their innings.

There was no release of steam from the other end too. Ashoke Dinda maintained the pressure,and didn’t give too many scoring opportunities. It was turning out to be a disastrous fixture,but little known Biplab Samantray offered resistance and scored some handy runs in the process.

Pune were in no mood to relax and skipper Angelo Mathews rotated his bowlers well in the middle overs. Leggie Rahul Sharma was on the money yet again,and gave nothing away in his quota of four overs.

Wickets continued to tumble at the other end,but Samantray held fort and picked the odd boundary. Thisara Perera,too,couldn’t assist Samantray,and fell without making a mark.

There was some relief for the trying Samantray,as the batsman found an able ally in Amit Mishra. Mishra wagged well in the later half of the innings to stitch an useful partnership with Samantray.

The team which didn’t look to score even a hundred,managed to struggle their way to a below par 119,courtesy useful contributions from the lower order.

Teams

Pune Warriors

RV Uthappa (wk),AJ Finch,MK Pandey,SPD Smith,AD Mathews (c),MR Marsh,AM Nayar,TL Suman,B Kumar,R Sharma,AB Dinda

Sunrisers Hyderabad

PA Patel (wk),CL White (c),NLTC Perera,Q de Kock,GH Vihari,A Ashish Reddy,KV Sharma,BB Samantray,A Mishra,DW Steyn,I Sharma