If one wants to see a side going down the path of defeat every single day, with no idea of how to arrest the slide, Pune Warriors India is the best possible example.
It’s alright when a team fails in one department, but with PWI, it’s like a multiple organ failure, you try repairing one, and you would see another couple of problems cropping up.
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s R Vinay Kumar (left) celebrates the wicket of Pune Warriors’ Michael Clarke on Friday. Pic/Atul Kamble
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So, where exactly have they been losing the plot, that has seen them lose six games in a row at IPL-V? “It has been different in every game. Sometimes it’s our top order, sometimes it’s been our middle-order, sometimes it’s our bowlers that have not performed up to the mark,” Steve Smith, PWI’s skipper for the last three games, said on Friday after suffering a 35-run defeat at home to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Regular skipper Sourav Ganguly, who rested himself for Friday’s game, felt it’s about not being able to finish things off. “We should have won the game against Bangalore (away) where RCB’s de Villiers scored 20 runs off the last over. We should have won at home against Mumbai (lost by 1 run), should have won away against Chennai (lost by 13 runs). We were just not able to finish things off. We took a down slide, and it has been a very steep slide,” the former India skipper pointed out.
There has been a lack of clarity in PWI’s planning throughout the season. Nobody knows why Robin Uthappa has not been asked to open more often, despite the Karnataka lad being reasonably successful. Then, dropping Manish Pandey to accommodate an inconsistent Ganguly itself raised eyebrows too.
Forget about plans, there was no clarity on whether Ganguly rested himself, or if he was asked to do so. “I don’t know if it was Sourav’s decision or if it was the team management’s. We were told by Sourav that he would rest for the next three games, and with Michael Clarke being unavailable for the next game for personal reasons, I got the captaincy,” Smith said.u00a0
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