Yusuf thrashes knights, rides out with shining armour

Yusuf Pathan produced a blistering knock that doused Kolkata’s enthusiasm as well as their chances of a surprise win in a grudge match against Jaipur in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday.
The Baroda batsman blasted an unbeaten 48 off just 18 deliveries and added 81 with Mohammad Kaif (34) for the unbroken fifth wicket stand, snatching the game away after his team was struggling at 69-4 in the 10th over, chasing a target of 148.
The Jaipur team was virtually assured of a semifinal berth before this match while Kolkata had to win in order to have a realistic chance. Kolkata skipper Ganguly, who had a spat with Shane Warne after their last match, had reason enough to hope for a resurgence from his boys. But that was not to be, as Pathan and Kaif sealed a six-wicket win with 21 balls to spare.
Pathan came close to bettering the fastest fifty of the tournament, which he had registered against Hyderabad off 21 deliveries, once again showing his stature in this form of the game. The Baroda batsman smashed three sixes and five fours, finishing the game with a heave over mid-wicket and then breaking into a big smile.
‘Man of the match’ Pathan and experienced campaigner Kaif came together when the team seemed to be slipping. Gul had produced a twin-wicket maiden during which he got rid of pinch-hitter Sohail Tanvir and Graeme Smith. Ishant Sharma had struck early on and with Sourav Ganguly removing Shane Watson a fight looked on the cards.
But the complexion of the game changed once again as Ganguly went for 17 runs in his next over, Pathan clobbering him for two huge sixes. A couple of inside-edged boundaries made things easier for the Baroda batsman, who reached 24 off just eight deliveries and then steadied himself up by running some quick doubles with his sprightly partner, who too opened up and smashed Ashoke Dinda for three consecutive fours on one occasion.
Earlier, Kolkata could never gain the kind of momentum needed to put up a challenging total. They were rattled early on as Munaf Patel removed the Pakistani opening pair of Mohammad Hafeez (four) and Salman Butt (24). Patel had Hafeez caught at mid-on in his first over after having just failed to take a return catch, and then trapped Butt lbw with a delivery that came in sharply at the left-hander.
David Hussey and Ganguly fell in trying to force the pace and the team was reduced to 95-4 in the 15th over. The other batsmen threw their bats around but could not get the better of an attack that has slowly but surely proved to be one of the best on view.
If Patel did the trick early on, left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir ensured there was no fight-back from the home side to finish with 3-26 including the important scalps of Laxmi Rattan Shukla and Debabrata Das.
In their previous encounter at Jaipur, the home side had scored an easy 45-run victory. The match was followed by a war of words between skippers Ganguly and Warne following a contentious decision when Ganguly forced the umpires to refer it to the third umpire after Graeme Smith had claimed he had taken a clean catch.
Teams:
Kolkata: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, David Hussey, Laxmi Rattan Shukla, Dababrata Das, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajit Agarkar, Umar Gul, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda.
Jaipur: Shane Warne (captain), Swapnil Asnodkar, Graeme Smith, Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Kaif, Ravindra Jadeja, Mahesh Rawat, Sohail Tanvir, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.