{ "id": "16510", "author": "13", "cnmid": "0", "title": "Pune, Punjab aim to avoid ignominy of IPL last spot ", "lang": "en", "series": "99", "cup_year": "2016", "article_type": "General", "excerpt": "", "subtype": "", "editor1": "

Visakhapatnam, May 20 (CRICKRTNMORE):<\/strong> Two bottom-placed teams, Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings XI Punjab will aim to end their turbulent Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign with a win when they take on each other here on Saturday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Both debutants Pune and Punjab have eight points each and are placed in the seventh and eight spot respectively on the league table -- the former are ahead on better net run rate. A win will help the teams avoid the last spot and it can be a big motivation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Both the sides are out of the race for the play-offs but the cricketers in each side will like to give respite to their shattered reputation in their final league game.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Pune are coming into the match with a comprehensive win over Delhi Daredevils and that should give confidence to the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Having lost their premier foreign recruits -- Steven Smith, Faf du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen and Mitchell Marsh -- to injuries, the side's batting has revolved around the ever-dependable Ajinkya Rahane (461 runs). The Mumbai right-hander has six fifties so far and will look to continue the good work.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Skipper Dhoni, Saurabh Tiwary and all-rounder Thisara Perera have been mostly inconsistent in their contributions. The focus will also be on Australian batting duo of Usman Khawaja and George Bailey.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The bowling will be led by off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who has been a shadow of his impressive self in the tournament so far. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Leg-spinners Murugan Ashwin and Adam Zampa will once again be Dhoni's go-to bowlers along with the pace duo of Ashok Dinda and R.P. Singh. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Zampa has been their find of the edition and the young Australian leg-spinner will look to add more to hsi tally of 11 wickets from four outings in order to impress his national selectors.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Pune's opposition Punjab will also look to avoid thw wooden spoon for the second successive edition. They also had finished last in 2010.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

This edition even a midway change in captaincy -- replacing David Miller with Murali Vijay -- din't help them as they faltered due to the batting failures.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The team's batting will depend on Vijay and Protea Hashim Amla, who hit a brilliant 96 in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

With Glenn Maxwell out of the tournament, David Miller, stumper Wriddhiman Saha, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis are expected to bolster the middle order.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The bowing will centre around seamers Sandeep Sharma (14 wickets) and Mohit Sharma (12 wickets). Left-arm spinner Axar Patel with 12 wickets, including a hat-trick, has not been bad either but somehow failed to click as an unit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Agency.<\/p>\r\n", "image": "https:\/\/img.cricketnmore.com\/uploads\/2016\/05\/53punevpunjab.jpg", "alt_img": "Pune, Punjab aim to avoid ignominy of IPL last spot ", "alt_title": "Pune, Punjab aim to avoid ignominy of IPL last spot ", "image1": "", "video": "", "seo_title": "Pune, Punjab aim to avoid ignominy of IPL last spot ", "seo_desc": "Pune, Punjab aim to avoid ignominy of IPL last spot Visakhapatnam, May 20 (CRICKRTNMORE): Two bottom-placed teams, Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings XI Punjab w", "seo_keywords": "IPL 2016, Rising Pune Supergiants vs Kings XI Punjab", "tag": "", "tagging": "", "status": "1", "img_rpt": "0", "google": "0", "standout": "0", "edapps": "0", "pulse": "0", "no_index": "0", "feed": "0", "fixture": "0", "slug": "rising-pune-supergiants-vs-kings-xi-punjab-53rd-match-preview-in-ipl-2016", "user_id": "0", "read_count": "0", "ians_date": "0000-00-00", "ians_time": "00:00:00", "server_time": "0000-00-00 00:00:00", "trash": "0", "view_count": "2794", "page_break": "0", "instant_articles": "0", "auto_link": "0", "created": "2016-05-20 18:20:00", "updated": "2016-05-20 18:20:00", "img_from": "", "img_source": "", "schedule_publish": "0000-00-00 00:00:00", "news_keywords": null, "livescore_text": null, "livescore_link": null, "btn_text": null, "resend_feed": "0", "google_feed": "0", "read_more": "0", "posted_by": "1", "jio_date": "2016-05-20 18:20:00", "scheduled": "0", "news_now": "1", "breaking_news": "0", "google_date": "2016-05-20 18:20:00", "featured": "0", "pred_match_id": null, "article_content_type": null, "link": "https:\/\/www.cricketnmore.com\/cricket-news\/rising-pune-supergiants-vs-kings-xi-punjab-53rd-match-preview-in-ipl-2016-16510" }