Pacer Ashok Dinda scalped four wickets as Pune Warriors pulled off an upset 28-run win over Mumbai Indians in a low-scoring Indian Premier League match in Mumbai on Friday.
The Warriors defended their total of 129 for nine with a clinical bowling effort on a Wankhede strip that assisted the spinners and pacers alike, restricting Mumbai to 101 for nine in the allotted 20 overs.
The visitors reduced the home team to a sorry five for three at the end of the second over and tightened the noose gradually to come out on top.
Missing an injured Sachin Tendulkar, there was little of note in the Mumbai innings, barring Dinesh Karthik's 32 off as many balls and an identical effort from James Franklin.
Both the batsmen added 49 runs for the fourth wicket.
Mumbai skipper Harbhajan Singh, who had bowled well for the wicket of his rival counterpart Sourav Ganguly earlier, made a valiant 16 off 15 balls towards the end.
Dinda, the Warriors' new recruit from Bengal, grabbed two wickets in his first over and then came back to add two more to finish with admirable figures of four for 18.
The spinners -- Murali Kartik, Marlon Samuels and Rahul Sharma -- choked up the Mumbai batting with the turn they got out of the pitch.
Karthik got two for 14, including the important wicket of
Karthik when the game was wide open, while West Indian Samuels and leggie Sharma got a wicket apiece along with South African pacer Wayne Parnell.
Earlier, bowling effectively to a plan and fielding brilliantly, the hosts restricted the visitors to a modest total.
The Warriors, who had won only four games in the previous season, commenced their campaign on a poor note after being put in to bat. They slumped to 27 for three by the fifth over and never recovered from the big blows.
The Warriors lost the wickets of Manish Pandey (0), Ganguly (3) and Parnell (11), all of them to poor shots, much to the delight of the home crowd.
Only Robin Uthappa (36 in 33 balls with three fours) and Steven Smith (39 in 32 balls with four fours) were among the runs and also compiled the highest stand of the innings -- 44 in 48 balls -- for the fifth wicket.
Murali Kartik came late in the order to hammer a quick-fire 14 off nine balls with a six and a four.
Mumbai will next take on Deccan Chargers at Vishakapatnam on April 9 while the Warriors play their first home game of the season against Kings XI Punjab on April 8 at the new Subroto Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune.
Mumbai started their run-chase poorly as they lost both the openers -- Richard Levi (0) and Ambati Rayudu (1) inside first two overs.
South Africa T20 specialist Levi, who stole the limelight with a Man-of-the-Match performance in Mumbai's opening game against Chennai Super Kings two days ago, was flummoxed by the amount of turn extracted by Murali Kartik with his left-arm spin and was out to the second ball of the innings, stumped while lunging forward.
Rayudu was out to an injudicious cut off Dinda and was caught at slip by Kartik.
Mumbai lost their third wicket when Rohit Sharma (1) was caught behind playing a horrendous shot, leaving the home team at a precarious five for three.
The repair job was left to Karthik and Franklin, who forged a 49-run stand in 53 balls to resurrect the innings.
Karthik looked in good touch and also struck a huge six over long-on off Marlon Samuels in the fifth over to bring back some cheer to Mumbai.
Franklin warmed up to the task with a slashed four off left-arm speedster Parnell as the 50 was raised in the 11th over.
Karthik was found well outside his crease when Kartik bowled one short to which the batsman stepped out and the ball turned past his bat for Uthappa to make a comfortable stumping.
Samuels then castled newcomer Suryakumar Yadav, replacement in the eleven for the injured Tendulkar, with a faster delivery that the batsman had no clue to and the dismissal left Mumbai at a difficult 64 for 5 in the 13th over.
Franklin was batting confidently as wickets fell at the other end. The big-hitting West Indian Kieron Pollard (8) was completely beaten by the fast leg-break from Rahul Sharma.
With the run-rate climbing and six wickets down, the gangling Franklin went for a mighty hit on the leg-side off Dinda, lost his bat in the process, and the skier was taken brilliantly by a diving Pandey at the mid-wicket.
Dinda came back for his second spell to dismiss Harbhajan (16) while Malinga (5) was dismissed by Parnell to effectively seal the match.
Photograph: Arko Datta/REUTERS
