Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad comfortable due to massive hitting from KKR’s blue eyed boy Yusuf Pathan. He hit the fastest fifty in the history of IPL which came from just 15 balls, and helped his team to finish at the 2nd spot in the table earning an advantage in the playoffs.
KKR captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and opted to field first considering the wicket which looked like that it would suit the bowlers. The bowl was moving fast in the initial overs and even the spinners were able to trouble the batsmen of the SRH team by the odd bounces. Sunrisers lost their in-form opening batsman David Warner (4 runs off 2 balls) early in the very first over of the innings by Morne Morkel. After that Naman Ojha (26 off 23 balls) and Shikhar Dhawan (29 off 31 balls) build a stable partnership of 64 runs for the 2nd wicket. Venugopal Rao and Darren Sammy (29 off 19 balls) played some big shots in the middle end of the innings. Finally SRH was managed to accumulate a modest total of 160/7 after 20 overs.
KKR’s star bowler Sunil Narine bowled economically but didn’t manage to take wickets tonight. However, he just conceded 19 runs from his limited quota of 4 overs. Morne Morkel, Vinay Kumar, Shakib Al Hasan and Ryan Ten Doeschate shared one wicket each.
Chasing this total wasn’t easy in Eden Garden’s pitch as it was supporting the bowlers, and to make it worst KKR lost their captain Gautam Gambhir (28 off 18 balls) inside the power overs. Kolkata team needed to win this game within 15.2 overs to claim the 2nd spot in the IPL table. It was really necessary for the KKR team as only the top two teams will get an extra chance in the play-offs.
Robin Uthappa (41 off 30 balls) played a good innings once again but young Manish Pandey failed to perform. But it was Yusuf Pathan who played a majestic innings of 72 runs from 22 balls hitting 5 boundaries and 7 sixes. He was dropped twice in the game by Anirudh Srikkanth and Dale Steyn, which later became the turning point of the game. KKR lost their two foreigners Ryan Ten Doeschate and Shakib Al Hasan in quick succession, but it was Yusuf Pathan’s night altogether. He almost finished the game before getting out in the hands of Karn Sharma, and after his dismissal Surya Kumar Yadav (12 off 5 balls) took the responsibility of finishing the game. Finally KKR finished the game in just 14.2 overs.
Karn Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for SRH team as he took 4 wickets. But the speedster Dale Steyn conceded a huge 43 runs from his 4 overs, which caused the defeat of his team.
Yusuf Pathan was chosen the Man of the Match for his unbelievable innings of 72 runs in just 22 balls. He showed his real class tonight to ensure the win for the team while maintaining the run rate.