IPL 2013: Mathews, Finch credit changed approach to batting for Pune's win

Australian Aaron Finch played a useful hand against Rajasthan Royals to help Pune Warriors secure their first win of Indian Premier League this year.

Backed by a nearly packed Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium, Pune restricted Rajasthan - confident after two wins in as many matches - to 145 and Finch partnered Robin Uthappa to commence what could have been a tricky chase. "The pitch has a tendency to get lower and slower. So, we knew we had to set ourselves in. All credit to Uthappa for the way he handled the ball initially," said Finch who scored 64 off 53 to be adjudged man-of-the-match. Uthappa scored a 16-ball 32.

The Pune outfit had been totally outclassed in the previous encounters in this edition of the tournament but on Thursday, the team looked determined to fight its way to a win. "We sat down and talked about how we wanted to approach the game. Usually, it can go two ways after that but today was our day," said the 26-year-old who plays for Victoria back home.

Skipper Angelo Mathews too was pleased with Finch's effort. "We needed the win badly. We backed Finch and he delivered. It is good to see that our approach to batting has changed and we trained really hard,"he said.

Opposition skipper Rahul Dravid complimented Pune's batting as well. "We have a few Australian players who played with Finch back home. So we knew what to expect from him. (Besides Finch) The team has some big hitters and it was just not our day," he said and added that he hopes the side will learn from the mistakes made and look to improve.