Pune: Pune Warriors India head coach Allan Donald Wednesday said it might be the fear of failure that has resulted in openers Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey failing to take advantage of field restrictions at the beginning of their innings during the team's first two Pepsi IPL games.
"Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa are attacking batsmen, but they seem to have gone into a shell during powerplay. It could be the fear internally," said Donald ahead of the Warriors' match against Rajasthan Royals Thursday. "It's my responsibility to help them. The mission is to get off the blocks and show some intent," he added.
The Warriors, who have slumped to two straight losses against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab, got a timely boost ahead of their third tie against the Jaipur franchise with Yuvraj Singh declared fit to play. "Yuvraj is fit and will play tomorrow. He was struggling to move last week and was not very mobile," said Donald.
The team, however, has been hit by a groin strain to another key player -- West Indian Marlon Samuels -- who has been ruled out as the Warriors did not want to take any chance of aggravating the injury, according to Donald. "Marlon Samuels has a groin strain and is out of the match. He could miss the next one, too. We don't want to take a risk because it's a long tournament," he said....
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07:06 PM, Apr 10, 2013
Pune: Kings XI Punjab put up a remarkable allround performance to crush Pune Warriors India by eight wickets in their first match of the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League. This is Pune's second consecutive defeat after they lost their opening match by 22 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday. Pune won the toss and opted to bat on a pitch offering substantial assistance to the seam bowlers. Praveen... 
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