| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Pune: Pune Warriors are known to play well against stronger teams but it will be a tough ask against table toppers Chennai Super Kings. MS Dhoni's team are clearly odds-on favourite against bottom-placed Pune, though taking things for granted can only be detrimental in this format.
Pune know that only too well. In their last match at home, Pune took a win against Sunrisers Hyderabad for granted and lost a match they should have won. It proved to be a costly slip, being followed by successive defeats to Kings XI, RCB — with Chris Gayle hitting a monster knock, the historic, unbeaten 175 in Bangalore last week and against Delhi at Raipur.
The contrasting fortunes of both teams can be seen through the prism of leadership. Chennai has got obvious advantages, with Dhoni being the leader of the group and calling the shots on significant matters. Pune's concepts of leadership seem to be in the doldrums.
Their top three batters in terms of average — Smith, Finch and Yuvraj — have scored 521 runs combined in 18 innings, roughly 29 per innings. In contrast, Mike Hussey and Dhoni have contributed a total of 698 runs for Chennai in 16 innings, roughly 43 per innings.
Pune possess good bowling assets in pacemen Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda and leggie Rahul Sharma. But their best bowler in terms of average and economy rate is Yuvraj Singh, and these four have taken 31 wickets in 105 combined overs.
By contrast, Chennai have three bowlers who have combined to take 35 wickets — Bravo (15), Ashwin and Morris (10 each) — in 91.3 overs. If Chennai pick left-arm paceman Dirk Nannes for the Pune game, it will be interesting to see his effort vis-a-vis the Pune duo of Bhuvnesh and Dinda.
Teams from
Pune Warriors: Angelo Mathews (captain), Aaron Finch, Robin Uthappa (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Ross Taylor, Ali Murtaza, Anustup Majumdar, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harpreet Singh, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Luke Wright, Mahesh Rawat, Manish Pandey, Marlon Samuels, Mitchell Marsh, Mithun Manhas, Rahul Sharma, Raiphi Gomez, Shrikant Wagh, Wayne Parnell, Ishwar Pandey, Steven Smith, Tirumalsetti Suman, Tamim Iqbal, Udit Birla, Abhishek Nayar, Ajantha Mendis, Kane Richardson, Parvez Rasool
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (captain & wk), Albie Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Srikkanth Anirudha, S Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Baba Aparajith, Vijay Shankar, Akila Dananjaya Perera, Chris Morris, Jason Holder, Ben Laughlin, Dirk Nannes, Ronit More, Mohit Mahipal Sharma, Imtiaz Ahmed, Ankit Rajpoot, R Karthikeyan
Match facts
Tuesday April 30, 2013 (day/nigyt)
Start time 20:00 local (1430 GMT)
