Daijiworld Media Network

Pune, Apr 26 : Welcome to the match between Pune and Deccan from the Subrata Roy Sahara stadium in Pune. Deccan are still searching for their first win in this edition. Pune, on the other hand, suffered a heavy defeat against Delhi and they will look to regain their confidence. Stay tuned for the toss and the team updates.

Deccan Chargers have won the toss and elected to bat

Yuvraj Singh is present at the stadium and he was part of the Pune team huddle. He was giving a pep talk to the team and many will hope that his presence will galvanize the Pune team.

Yuvraj: It is amazing to be back. It feels like I was here yesterday. I'm just happy to see all the people here and to meet my friends. When I first got diagnosed it was hard for me to digest. I was on a high after the World Cup and I wanted to peak from there. I have fought a tough battle but I have received a lot of love and affection from the country, my family, the BCCI and Mr.Subroto Roy. I was really far away from home and I didn't have much to do after the treatment. I just want to tell all the people going through this to be tough and be strong.

All my close friends came over to vist me. Anil Kumble was there, I met Sachin in London and even Ranvijay came to see me. My father was always there talking to me on the phone but my mother was the pillar, she was the strongest and she took care of me very well. Lance Armstrong is a real life hero for me. I'm starting to feel better and my stamina is improving day by day, so hopefully I can start training soon. I can't really say when exactly I will be back to playing cricket, but perhaps in 3-4 months I should be back. Dada has been doing well until now and if we can make it to the last four then we could just come close to winning. I have been keeping a track on Sourav's hair because it really needs to be cut so I told him to cut his hair or use my gel.

Ganguly: It is good to see Yuvraj here in the dugout. It is very kind of the IPL to let him sit in the dugout. Yes he said he would come with scissors but I got the job done yesterday. We have done well until now, Delhi is a good team and we got the better of them at Delhi but they beat us at home. I would have bowled anyway. It is a good surface, it plays better than it actually looks.

Sangakkara: It has been quite tough. We have come close in some games but not won in important situations. We are chopping and changing at the moment and looking for our best combination. We are really hungry to win a few games now. The luck with the toss has been 50-50 I'd say. We have got to play well and really win and make sure we get a good total on the board. The decision to bat first has got to do with the pitch, it might just turn a little later.

Teams:

Pune Warriors (Playing XI): Jesse Ryder, Manish Pandey, Sourav Ganguly(c), Robin Uthappa(w), Steven Smith, Marlon Samuels, Mithun Manhas, Alfonso Thomas, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Ashish Nehra

Deccan Chargers (Playing XI): Kumar Sangakkara(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel(w), Jean-Paul Duminy, Cameron White, Ishank Jaggi, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Amit Mishra, Juan Theron, Manpreet Gony