Responsible Yuvraj steers Pune to 141

For the second time in three days, Chennai Super Kings handcuffed Pune Warriors' batsmen by making exemplary use of the conditions presented to them. While the spinners had tied up Yuvraj Singh's men in the Chennai leg, this time the seamers made use of the extra bounce to systematically dismantle the batting. As his team-mates once again perished to careless shots, Yuvraj played responsibly to hold things together before exploding towards the end, pushing Pune to 141.

Chennai's plans were evident in the first over of the game when Nuwan Kulasekara, on IPL debut, landed each ball short of a length. There was none of Kulasekara's trademark sideways movement on display, but this wasn't a stand-and-deliver kind of strip. The message was lost on Pune's batsmen though.

Ryder tried to dominate with a series of lofted boundaries off Kulasekara, but could not bully the pacier Doug Bollinger in the same manner. He fell top-edging an effort ball that rose quickly from short of a length. Mohnish Mishra perished to the pull as well, not bothering to adjust to the length after plonking his front foot forward. Kulasekara then dismissed Mithun Manhas with a trademark inducker that squeezed between bat and pad to disturb the leg bail. Manish Pandey departed to a replay of Mishra's brain-fade, cross-batting Tim Southee off the front foot straight to mid-on. 

Uthappa tried to stamp his authority on spin, reverse-lapping Shadab Jakati with the turn, and cutting him when he dropped short. Uthappa had a score to settle with R Ashwin, who had bowled him around the legs with a carom ball in the previous game. This time Uthappa won the first round, slog-sweeping Ashwin's offbreak with the spin, and the carom ball against the turn for sixes. Ashwin finished on top though, nailing him for the second time with a carom ball on leg stump, inducing a leading edge as Uthappa again swiped against the deviation.

Yuvraj survived a loose flail at a Kulasekara offcutter first ball, and thumped the next delivery, one of the few over-pitched by Kulasekara, through cover. Thereafter he settled in carefully, and opened up only after Uthappa's exit. Yuvraj carted Ashwin with the angle over midwicket before launching Bollinger straight for the shot of the afternoon. Mitchell Marsh starved Yuvraj for strike in the end overs before falling to another front-foot pull against Bollinger. Yuvraj still managed to finish on a high, launching Southee for two sixes in the last over. The last five overs yielded 50, but Chennai were the favourites at the halfway mark, despite the absence of Albie Morkel in their batting line-up.