Pacers on song as Mohali rewinds to fast track

Dimitri Mascarenhas got the ball to swing in prodigiously,before letting the lively wicket do the rest.

The dismissal of Marlon Samuels epitomised it. Barely having survived Praveen Kumar and debutant Parvinder Awana,who not only utilised their ability to move the ball in the air but also gained plenty of assistance with movement off the Mohali wicket,Samuels,batting on an ungainly 11-ball 2 at that point,was set up perfectly for the finishing assault.

Dimitri Mascarenhas got the ball to swing in prodigiously,before letting the lively wicket do the rest. The delivery straightened just annoyingly enough to beat the West Indian batsman,and pegged his off-stump back during its away movement. And just like that,for the first time in this IPL,the green pitch at Mohali did what no other neutralising factor could withhold the big hits and put the bowlers on an even keel as the thick wooded batsmen.

Unlike any other venue used during the fifth edition of this league,Mohali broke free from short-format tradition and made sure that a proper game of cricket was played between hosts Kings XI Punjab and the in-form boys of the Pune Warriors. But so used to clearing their legs and dumping balls into stands,the Pune players,like Samuels,forgot the thumb rule of playing on a grassy wicket that of getting their eyes in.

It was the Mohali wicket of old the kind that once gave it the reputation of being the fastest pitch in the country present with all its skiddy demons,those that force captains of both sides scurrying to take the field first. On such a pitch,whether it is a day game or one under lights,there is plenty of help for the bowlers in the first hour,and KXIP skipper Adam Gilchrist didnt have to think twice before putting Sourav Gangulys men in first. And on expected lines,his faster bowlers delivered.

The first five overs of the game,those shared by Kumar and Awana,were more than enough to put maddening doubts in the minds of the Pune batsmen,if they did nothing else. Then,having planted the seeds of their downfall with balls cutting square from the off-middle corridor,the Punjab boys sat back and reaped the rewards as batsman after batsman fell to the voices in their minds.

Just like Mascarenhas,the Englishman,Harmeet Singh,the local lad,read the wicket to perfection. Following the double strike of Ganguly and Samuels in the sixth over,Harmeet let the track dismiss the dangerous Angelo Mathews in the ninth. He gave the ball a little more time in the air by bowling it fuller,and the leather responded to its master by curving in late,before a lethal in-cutter on bouncing trapped him in front.

So,the big question at this point is whether such pitches are unsuitable to the slam-bam version of the game. The Kings XI Punjab,who ended up posting their first points on the board in these conditions,will reply in the negative. Everything that Pune did wrong,Punjab did right by allowing the bowlers to dominate in the first 10 overs,but without losing a bunch of wickets.

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In the first half of the second innings,there were three overs where no boundaries were scored,and five with only the solitary four in it. Then,when the pitch lost its demons by the second half of the innings,Shaun Marsh,who had already gotten his eyes,legs and hands in,scored 64 runs and took his team to victory. Had the Pune Warriors not lost their top-seven for just 100 runs and instead applied themselves,it could have been a most interesting match at the PCA Stadium. But for that,the fans will have to wait until the Kolkata Knight Riders come visiting next week.