I'm back on my home turf and am seeking a return of our better fortunes. The Pune Warriors are now in Chandigarh where we will face Kings XI in our tenth game.
It's always refreshing to come back to your home town and recharge your batteries before the tough business begins.
We are in desperate need of both luck and performance to turn things around.
After a great opening, the IPL has been full of disappointments for us and I can't deny that we have failed to live up to what we can do when really firing.
When I see the players in the Warriors dressing room and then look at the points table, it fails to make sense.
I don't think the points table is really a true reflection of our ability and resources.
We deserved to be in a much better state of mind and on a much better stage.
It's not that we have played really bad cricket. It's just that in all these defeats we fell just short of both our targets and objectives.
Extra pressure
If we were batting first we scored 10-15 runs less than our desired target. While bowling we gave away 10 to 15 runs extra which created the extra pressure on us.
Look at the last match against Mumbai Indians where at one point we were in a position to restrict them to around 140. But we ended up giving 159 runs and those extra 15 runs made all the difference.
Despite having our backs to the wall, now we have to see what we can retrieve from this situation.
Nothing less than a run of victories will keep us alive in the league and that would be the simple equation in all the remaining games we have this season.
At this point we don't want to look up and see how difficult the terrain and the climb is.
The easier approach would be to get there by keeping our eyes on the small steps.
At no point has this group lost the hope and intent to attempt harder and play better.
We know the odds are stacked against us but the other way to look at it is that this is a very common sort of situation in sport.
Teams and individuals in past have been there and shaken off their blues so I don't see any reason why can't we do this.
I know I have some examples and reasons to back it. Rahul Sharma, the young leg spinner from Punjab, has been outstanding for us. In the last game against Mumbai Indians he bowled one of the best spells in the IPL I have seen.
Against the mighty Mumbai batting he had magical figures of 7 runs for 2 wickets in four overs. In any format a spell like this is worth gold.
For it to come against the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Kieron Pollard and Andrew Symonds in Twenty20 is outstanding.
I first saw Rahul in the Ranji season this year and the first look of him impressed me.
His biggest advantage is his height and the kind of bounce he extracts out of it.
Subtle variations
He has good control over his line and length and subtle variations needed to unsettle batsmen.
Rahul played his part against Mumbai Indians and we're hoping a few more hands will be raised on Sunday.
We need some more performances like this and soon to bail us out.
— Professional Management Group