IPL 5 2012: Pune Warriors vs Mumbai Indians

IPL 5 2012: Pune Warriors face a difficult opening match as they kick off their Indian Premier League (IPL 5 ) season five campaign against title favourites Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday. Sahara Pune Warriors might have ignited the new way of promoting the team and brand by making the headlines for all wrong reason at first then drawing everyone attention thereafter till the start of IPL season 5. They got special permission and needless to say they got special attention in media over the last three months beginning from their name of captain to new signings. It’s time for Pune to show it on the field and make the news for right reasons.

Mumbai is well settled unit and they got no problems on deciding their playing XI since they got players to field two competitive IPL teams if needed. On the other hand, Pune and Ganguly got lot to ponder on their final line-up mainly in all-rounder department. Angelo Mathews injury doesn’t help their case either. Ganguly need to decide whether he needs more batting power or bowling options when it comes to deciding the 4 overseas players to play. Harpeet Singh might get the node but if Dada decides to go for experience, then Mishra and Manhas are the options.

The pitch at the Wankhede Stadium is batting paradise but might get drier as the tournament goes into the month of May. But for now, you can expect a true wicket where batsmen are given a license to play all the shots in their book and bowlers need to be smart. A high scoring game is on the cards. Dew is expected to come, so win the toss and bat second is better option.

Teams:
Mumbai Indians: 1 Sachin Tendulkar/T Suman, 2 Richard Levi, 3 Ambati Rayudu, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 James Franklin, 8 Harbhajan Singh (capt), 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Abu Nechim, 11 Pragyan Ojha

Pune Warriors India: 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 Mohnish Mishra, 3 Robin Uthappa (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Callum Ferguson, 6 Marlon Samuels, 7 Wayne Parnell/Nathan McCullum, 8 Alfonso Thomas, 9 Murali Kartik, 10 Rahul Sharma, 11 Ashok Dinda