Yuvraj's familiar failing

Yuvraj Singh has often struggled against good spin bowling. This was no Test match and there were no close-in fielders, but he was done in by Amit Mishra off the third ball of spin he faced on his IPL comeback. The legspinner tossed it up on leg stump; Yuvraj walked down the pitch, completely misreading the line. The ball pitched in front of his pads, and spun down the leg side to leave Yuvraj stranded and stumped.

Thisara Perera performed his allrounder's role with bat and ball, top scoring with 30 and taking the first two Warriors wickets. As the asking-rate climbed and Warriors lost batsmen regularly, he was to make a final, important impact. With 33 needed off the last three overs, Angelo Mathews hammered a Perera full toss straight down the pitch. Perera managed to stick his right hand out, the ball deflected off his fingers and crashed into the non-striker's stumps, catching the explosive Mitchell Marsh out of his ground. Even as Perera nursed his hurting fingers, Marsh departed with a wry smile.

Perera's big-hitting skills cost Sunrisers Hyderabad $675,000 in the 2013 auction. They were on display right from the first ball he faced for his new franchise. Rahul Sharma offered slight width, and Perera was quick to scythe it wide of sweeper cover for four. Rahul corrected his line next ball, bowling it on the stumps. Perera altered his hitting zone too, powering it straight down the ground past a helpless long-on.

Speed guns in the IPL have been known to turn medium-pacers into runaway quicks, but this one was different. When Yuvraj Singh bowled a slow, loopy delivery in the 11th over, it was clocked as high as 95 kph. When Marlon Samuels sent down one of his rockets in the 17th over, it barely registered 95 kph.