Veteran Sourav Ganguly silenced his critics by marking his belated return to the Indian Premier League with a gutsy batting display as Pune Warriors notched up a comfortable six-wicket victory over Deccan Chargers here on Tuesday.
The 38-year-old Ganguly remained unbeaten on 32 off as many balls as Pune, after being asked to bowl first, achieved the target with 10 balls to spare.
After Mitchell Marsh helped Warriors restrict the hosts to 136 for eight with impressive figures of four for 25, Manish Pandey was unlucky to miss out on a well-deserved half century by a run but did enough to pave the way for his team's victory.
Equally impressive was Pandey's opening partner Jesse Ryder, who made a hurricane 35 of 20 deliveries.
But it was Ganguly who stole the limelight with a fluent unbeaten knock which contained three boundaries and a six.
Mitchell Marsh took 4/25 and skipper Yuvraj Singh chipped in with 2/17 as Pune Warriors India restricted the Deccan Chargers to 136/8 in match 53 of IPL-4 at Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Earlier, the Chargers kept losing wickets at regular intervals in an effort to accelerate.
Pune Warriors skipper Yuvraj got his second wicket of the innings by dismissing Daniel Christian.
Pune leg spinner Rahul Sharma got the all important wicket of Kumar Sangakkara as the Chargers lost their third wicket.
At hot, humid afternoon at Hyderabad, Deccan Chargers skipper Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat first.
Pragyan Ojha replaces Ishan Malhotra in the Deccan eleven. And ending all speculation, Sourav Ganguly will feature in the Pune line-up.
Sangakkara also rubbished theories that the Uppal Stadium is turning out to be a jinxed ground.
"Jinx is a state of mind. When the crucial times come, it is the responsibility of the team to take the games and turn it around. Pressure is a constant factor in this format. You cannot play any professional sport without pressure.
"You have to learn and be mentally strong to try and meet those situations and raise your game," said the skipper.
The situation is same in the Pune Warriors camp, who have lost seven matches in IPL-IV, must clinch this game to continue the momentum which they found after the last match triumph .
All eyes would once again be on former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who is yet to play for the team, despite being signed up last week as a replacement player.
Given Pune's batting frailties, Ganguly could finally get a game to lend the line-up some strength.
Pune's star batsman and captain Yuvraj, Jesse Ryder and Robin Uthappa also need to shine bright with the bat, while bowlers such as Rahul Sharma, who was the man of the match in their game against Kings XI Punjab, have to continue doing well.
"When I look at my team I can't imagine how we lost so many games with that talent. We just haven't clicked," Yuvraj had said after Sunday night's match.
