A ball before,Angelo Mathews had failed to get under a mishit from Pawan Negi,a difficult chance that had required him to turn 180 degrees at short cover and sprint while looking over his shoulder to keep his eyes on the ball. Now Negi hit another towards him,a sitter,a dolly,call it what you will. Mathews dropped it. Sourav Ganguly,the unfortunate bowler,treated Mathews to his umpteenth indignant stare of the night,when Pune played Delhi last week. Before Ganguly had swung the game Pune Warriors way by bringing himself on and taking two wickets,Mathews had conceded 32 runs in two overs,with Kevin Pietersen smacking him for three sixes in four balls. Mathews bowling record for the season doesnt make for pleasant reading 12 overs,117 runs,three wickets,an average of 39.00,an economy rate of 9.75. With the bat,the Sri Lankan has scored 54 runs at 18.00,and in his one substantial stay at the wicket a 22-ball 27 against Chennai Super Kings looked unable to force the pace in the face of a mounting required rate. He has scarcely resembled Mahela Jayawardenes go-to man,with bat and ball,during the CB Series in Australia. The IPL hasnt been particularly kind on Jayawardene either. In five innings for Delhi,he has a highest score of 20 not out. IPL 2012,in fact,has not been kind to most Sri Lankans. Kumar Sangakkara has scored 71 runs at 17.75,at less than a run a ball. All three began the tournament burdened with massive expectations. Mathews,who had cost Pune close to a million dollars last year,didnt feature at all in that season thanks to a pulled thigh muscle. So far this season,with no real fitness worries,Mathews has brought his team little delayed gratification. During the 2011 auction,the now defunct Kochi franchise spent USD 1.5 million to procure Jayawardene. Despite an up-and-down season with Tuskers 299 runs at 23.00 at a strike rate of 116.34 Delhi still valued him enough to shell out USD 1.4 million on him a year later. There is absolutely no doubting Jayawardenes quality,in any but he has yet to justify the sky-high prices he has commanded for two seasons running. Puzzling captaincy Sangakkara,meanwhile,began the season as the one genuinely world-class batsman in a Deccan Chargers line-up shorn of megastars. But he is yet to fire with the bat and some of his captaincy decisions have been puzzling. Against Mumbai he elected to come in at number five,after the powerplay overs had been exhausted. And in nearly every match,he has promoted either Dan Christian or Cameron White above JP Duminy,a more accomplished top-order bat enjoying a bright run of form. On Thursday,Sangakkaras Chargers side will hope desperately to claim their first win of the season. For that to happen,they might require something special from their skipper. Their opponents,meanwhile,suffer a crisis for seam options,with Ashok Dinda yet to recover from a side strain. Apart from Dinda and Alfonso Thomas who has only bowled six overs so far all of Punes seamers have conceded runs at more than 8.50 per over. Going by his numbers for the season,Mathews has done himself no favours so far,but there should be no argument on the basis of class. PWI vs DC,Live on Set Max,8 pm
