Week 6 - Match 5 - Pune Warriors vs Rajasthan Royals

Welcome to the DY Patil Stadium, home of the Pune Warriors

Form
(Will do later)

Pitch Conditions: Lots of spin off of this pitch making even part time spinners look amazing. Obviously this spin will also help any medium pacers who can bowl cutters. Batting will be tricky so may well be a low scoring game.

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Please post tactics below....

Should be a close game. RR have Warne, Botha and Abdul Razzaq plus a few others, but I have Swann, Abdulla, Mathews, Yuvraj and JP Duminy if he is selected... Lots of spin/cutters options for both sides.

Provisional XI

Watson
Dravid
Sangakkara (w)
Karthik
Uthappa
Manhas
Menaria
Botha/Razzaq/Narine
Botha/Razzaq/Narine
Warne
Ishant

Official Pune Warriors XI:

Paul Valthaty
Ajinkhya Rahane
Virat Kohli
Yuvraj Singh - c
Saruabh Tiwary
JP Duminy
Jos Buttler - wk
Angelo Mathews
Graeme Swann
Iqbal Abdulla
Jade Dernbach


Toss: Bat first. The pitch is spinning from ball one so won't change over the 40 overs much, so the toss isn't that important but I would bat first to get a good total up on the board and then inflict huge scoreboard pressure with my battery of class spinners.

Batting: I have batted first on a spinning pitch so I have loaded my side with batsmen so a low score is very unlikely. Jos Buttler is on the card at 7 (he may come in earlier though) with Mathews at 8 (again may come in earlier depending on the situation) with Graeme Swann and Iqbal Abdulla at 9 and 10, both of which of near all rounders in T20 cricket, or at least very handy with the bat. My top 5 are all Indian aswell which is crucial as Indiand are reknowned as the best players of spin in the world so they will be able to cope with the spin on this pitch easily and get me off to a good start. If I lose an early wicket then Kohli will come in to steady the ship afetr Valthaty has looked to be aggressive and get me off to a flyer, but if my openers go well then Mathews may get a promotion to have a quick 4 over burst up the order to try and boost the rate. In the middle overs my players will just try and nurdle Warne for 5/6 an over and attack the other bowlers as he is obviously still world class and the Royals main threat. Obviously with a platform it gives my destructive middle order chance to fire with Duminy, Yuvraj and Buttler all coming in to increase the rate and with my deep batting order they should get this chance. I am targetting 150 as a winning total on this pitch.

Bowling: I will open with Dernbach and Mathews, both of whom despite being quick bowlers bowl brilliant cutters (especially Mathews) and Dernbach's slower balls will be mighty effective on this pitch. Then my army of spin will be introduced. Abdulla will bowl in the PP after Dernbach only bowls 2 overs and then Swann/Yuvraj/Duminy will come on in the middle overs and cause torment. Swann is obviously a world class spinner and will thrive on this wicket, whilst Yuvraj is a genuine all rounder in T20's and will also love this pitch and Duminy is more of a part timer, but he will still relish this wicket and this will make him very threatening still (Josh Cobb on finals day). Then with wickets down Dernbach will come back at the death and he will be impossible to get away at the RR required and he will clean up the Royals tail.

Dernbach - 1, 3, 18, 20
Mathews - 2, 4, 6, (maybe 19)
Abdulla - 5, 7, 9, 11
Swann - 8, 10, 12, 14
Yuvraj - 13, 15, 17, (maybe 19)
Duminy - 16 and possibly more overs if one bowler is a bit expensive.

Matthews at 8?

It is a flexible order. He probably will get a promotion if the situation depends, like I said in my tactics, but I needed to get 8 quality batsmen in and that was the order I put them down in.

Watson
Dravid
Sangakkara (w)
Karthik
Uthappa
Razzaq
Menaria
Shukla
Botha
Warne (c)
Ishant

Toss - Bowl first. My batting line up suits chasing better with Watson and Razzaq in particular favouring batting second. The pitch will take spin throughout, therefore it won't change during the match.

Selection - Shukla is in to provide back up medium pace bowling on this wicket. Yadav left out as he'd more that likely be expensive on this type of wicket

Batting - My top 6 have all played international cricket and 5 of them are from the subcontinent, so will be used to wickets to these. Watson will also be used to this sort of pitch as he has plenty of experience in subcontinental conditions. The team has capable batsmen down to Warne at 10 as I have included five all rounders for this game. Watson will look to attack against inexperienced opening bowlers Dernbach and Mathews. Dernbach in particular is known to be expensive in the shorter forms of the game. Once the spinners come on Watson will still look to attack but Dravid will anchor the innings and look for singles and two's, especially off Swann who will be Pune's danger man. Sangakkara will also look to anchor, while Karthik and Uthappa will attack. Razzaq's position in the order will change depending on wickets lost. He'll look to come in around the 14th over, so he can face sufficient balls to cause mayhem.

Bowling - Ishant and Watson will open the bowling as both Rahane and Valthaty are known to struggle against quality fast bowling. Notoriously economical off spinner Johan Botha will come on after 4 overs. Razzaq, who's cutters will be extremely useful on this surface will bowl the 7th over after the PP is over. I have plenty of medium and slow bowling options, Shukla will only be used of one of mu other main bowlers struggles. If Ishant goes well in his first spell he'll get an extra over at the death at the expense of Razzaq.

Watson 1,3,18,20 (4 overs)
Ishant 2,4,6 (3 overs)
Botha 5,11,13,15 (4 overs)
Razzaq 7,9,17,19 (4 overs)
Warne 8,10,14,16 (4 overs)
Menaria 12 (1 over)

Rahane struggles against quality fast bowling? A bit harsh! And I wouldn't describe Watson as a quality fast bowler anyway!

Tight game on our hands again...

i would describe watson as a medium pace bowler, and rahane is good agianst fast bowling.

I beg to differ

watson used to be fast, but now he is just medium pace lol.

Watson is fast-medium

na not IMO, injuries wrecked it for him, he usually hovers around the 80mph mark

By the way the weakness against fast bowling comment was mainly aimed at Valthaty, Rahane is better against them that him.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/8180.html

cricinfo agrees with me

good for them, he still only bowls at 80mph, which in international cricket is military medium pace.

He normally bowls around 135 kmh

Valthaty's weakness against quicker bowling should be alright on a spinners wicket though.

Watson only averages 39 in Tests?! I can't believe that. I know it isn't relevant to the game, but I thought it would be far higher than that.

depends if Ishant gets him early

He has a weakness against quality fast bowling. Not Ishant's buffet stuff.

Ishant did well in the IPL, he was just useless in the tests against England.

Have to admit that he was bowling well until he came to England. Bowled well in the IPL and then well in the West Indies.

Yeah, this Ishant has discovered his pre-England tour form

when Ishant is bowling well, he's right up there in the top 5 pace bowlers in the world IMO. Problem is it doesn't happen very often...