Debutants Hyderabad begin with win as Pune fail to chase down 127

Hyderabad's bowler Dale Steyn (second right) celebrates with team members after taking a wicket against Pune Warriors during their IPL 6 match in Hyderabad. (PTI Photo)

HYDERABAD: Dale Steyn, world's premier fast bowler, took three wickets off fours balls in his final over, the 19th of the innings, to snuff out Pune's challenge on Friday. His effort helped Hyderabad open their league campaign with an exciting 22-run win. Pune needed a modest 127 for victory but were thwarted by a spirited effort by the host bowlers, led by Steyn and leg-spinner Amit Mishra. Both ended up with three wickets each.

After a steady opening partnership of 36, Pune kept losing wickets at regular intervals and let the pressure mount every passing over as they were dismissed for 104 in 18.5 overs. Pune had little to chase down in their opening league fixture and in making 48 for three at the halfway stage showed they had pencilled in a strategy to see of Dale Steyn's torrid opening spell of four runs from two overs.

Ishant Sharma too kept the other end tight as Robin Uthappa fell to Thisara Perera. The game was finely balanced after Perera struck twice in five balls for the addition of four runs and Parthiv Patel effected a smart stumping to get rid off Yuvraj Singh off Amit Mishra. Pune's struggle was similar to Hyderabad's earlier on Friday when the newest franchisee left it till very late in the innings and settled for a modest 126 for six in their debut game.

The pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium is known to be kind to batsmen. Angelo Mathews was lucky with the toss and packed as Pune are with quality players, they felt it was wise to chase.

Shikhar Dhawan's absence left a gaping hole at the top for Hyderabad and for the first time since the league started, four local players -- Akshath Reddy, DB Ravi Teja, GH Vihari and Ashish Reddy -- featured in the same team. It was understandable they were cautious to begin with but Akshath and his opening partner Parthiv Patel struggled to get a move-on.

Something had to give and Patel left. The hosts, reduced to 60 for two at the halfway stage continued to falter in the next five overs, adding 27 runs for the loss of two more wickets. Skipper Kumar Sangakkara fell trying to heave leggie Rahul Sharma out of the ground and Akshath followed his skipper to the dugout after making 27 (30b, 2x4).

Cameron White's first real attempt to infuse life into the innings saw him hole out to Mitchell Marsh off Marlon Samuels, who opened the bowling and did well to keep the rival batsmen in check while skipper Mathews shuffled the pack, not allowing the Hyderabad batsmen any sighter.

It was left to Thisara Perera to provide some pace and substance to the innings and his breezy 30 (18b, 2x4, 1x6) included 15 from one over off Samuels when the Sri Lankan left-hander picked his spot at mid-wicket for some special treatment.

Vihari, making his debut, Ravi Teja and Ashish put on a game fight but pacers Bhuvneshwar and Dinda were not easy to get away. Yuvraj Singh too did his bit to put the brakes on Hyderabad scoring with returns of 1/8 from two overs and Rahul Sharma did a fine job of checking the run flow. That the last five overs yielded just 39 runs for the loss of two wickets is a fair indication of how Pune bowled.