Pathan blitz downs Deccans charge

Many a time in this IPL campaign,Kolkata had lost their way after the top-order couldn8217;t convert their starts into a single big score,and Tuesday8217;s match seemed to be heading in the same direction. But that8217;s when Yusuf Pathan decided to come good for the first time this season.

Pathan,who marked his crease at the fall of Kallis8217;s wicket,and Manoj Tiwary,who made his way in as his skipper walked out,decided to wipe that smile off the opposition8217;s faces. With an 80-run stand that lasted exactly eight overs,Pathan and Tiwary plundered the Chargers8217;s attack into submission,such that even the likes of Dale Steyn and Ishant Sharma weren8217;t charging anymore.

When Tiwary was dismissed for a 28-ball 33 with two balls to spare in the first innings,KKR8217;s score had ballooned to 164/4. And that was largely due to Pathan8217;s cross batted heaves during the interim period,where he walloped three fours and as many sixes during his unbeaten knock of 47 that came of just 26 balls.

Kolkata8217;s target of 170 was a stiff yet achievable one,but that8217;s when Iqbal Abdulla,Kolkata8217;s unsung hero right through this campaign,decided to leap frog Shane Warne and Morne Morkel into the second highest wicket taker8217;s spot,scalping both opener Sunny Sohal and skipper Kumar Sangakkara within the space of three balls.

Having gotten off to a decent start of 41 by the sixth over without losing to wicket to either Brett Lee or Laxmipathy Balaji,Deccan8217;s openers Sohal and Shikhar Dhawan were cruising along,in complete control of the required run-rate. But Gambhir introduced his secret weapon the left-arm tweak of Abdulla and the move worked like a charm.

A weak cut to a gentle breaker went straight into the palms of Eoin Morgan at point,and Sohal was dismissed for a battling 26. However,the same cannot be said about Sangakkara8217;s soft mode of dismissal.

Flicking at a ball that stopped on him,Sangakkara was into his shot early,lobbing the leather nonchalantly into Kallis8217;s bucket like hands. Abdulla ran circles around the ground,while his bowling did more of the same to Deccan8217;s batsmen.

Inspired by the Abdulla move,Gambhir brought Yusuf Pathan8217;s slow off breaks into the attack. And unlike his batting,Pathan couldn8217;t cause any real damage during his spell of three overs.

Dhawan scored 54 and Ravi Teja made 30,but the lack of impetus in the chase caused their final downfall,falling short by a good 20 runs.