Punjab begin season with commanding win

Kings XI Punjab's accurate seam bowling was complemented by an all-round fielding display as they raced to an eight-wicket win over Pune Warriors in Pune. It was the first time Punjab had begun an IPL season with a victory and they took just 12.2 overs to chase the target and hand the home side their second successive loss.

Two run-outs and Gurkeerat Singh's spectacular catch were the highlights as Kings XI took control of the game from the first over. The four-man seam attack hardly gave the Warriors batsman a chance on a pitch that perhaps misled them into batting first.

Manish Pandey's hesitant prod started Warriors' slide and they struggled in the Powerplay overs. T Suman, who replaced the injured Yuvraj Singh, added 20 for the second wicket with Robin Uthappa, but both fell trying to push the run-rate. Suman skied Azhar Mahmood while Uthappa's charge to the legspinner Piyush Chawla was poorly judged.

Mandeep Singh then ran out Marlon Samuels with a terrific throw running in from the deep midwicket boundary, and Chawla later ran out Rahul Sharma with a direct hit from long-off, off the last ball of the innings.

Parvinder Awana was a force among the quicks. After a good first over he bowled the best ball of the game, which took Angelo Mathews' outside edge. Warriors were 38 for 5 at the end of the 10th over, and the game had slipped away from them.

Kings XI's accurate bowling made the difference, but the first-match energy from the fielders left Warriors batsman stranded at either end for long patches. The highlight in the field came in the 14th over, via a jaw-dropping catch. Ross Taylor's trademark pull towards long leg was intercepted by Gurkeerat, who dived full length to his right and caught the ball after it had passed him and held on to it after crashing to earth.

Had Mitchell Marsh and Abhishek Nayar not added 25 for the seventh wicket, Warriors would have had to defend fewer than the 99 they got in the end.

Kings XI captain Adam Gilchrist took fourteen runs off the first over of the chase. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was hit for two straight fours and a flicked six, but Gilchrist fell soon after to a catch at deep square-leg.

Then it was the turn of little known Manan Vohra to make a spectacle of his IPL debut. The No. 3 batsman smashed four out of five fours in the fourth over bowled by Ashok Dinda. There were nice shots on the offside before the youngster brought out a swivel-pull to finish the over. He then drilled Mathews to the straight boundary to make it five fours in as many balls.

Warriors were poor in the field too. Dinda dropped Mandeep Singh at mid-on before Taylor dropped Vohra at slip. Mandeep and Vohra added 58 for the second wicket with the debutant making 43 off 28 balls.