Yusuf Pathan (63*) struck seven fours and one six in his 41-ball innings. (Photo: BCCI)
Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan hit fighting fifties in a record partnership to lift Kolkata Knight Riders to a competitive 158/4 after a disastrous start against Gujarat Lions in their IPL T20 match here on Sunday.
KKR were stuttering at 24/4 inside the Powerplay overs with a splendid seam bowling display by Praveen Kumar (2/19) and Dhawal Kulkarni (1/3), but Pathan and Shakib put on a record unbroken partnership of 134 runs to stage a remarkable recovery. It was the highest fifth-wicket stand in IPL history.
Shakib struck a 49-ball 66 with four sixes and as many fours while Pathan came up with a 41-ball 63 that had seven shots to fence and one over the ropes.
On a day when their successful opening duo of Robin Uthappa (14) and Gautam Gambhir (5) failed, Pathan and Shakib came to team’s rescue as the Gujarat Lions failed to make any further inroad.
The Lions had bolstered their spin line-up by bringing in leg-spinner Pravin Tambe to bowl alongside Ravindra Jadeja and Shivil Kaushik but the trio failed to make any impact on the Eden wicket.
Praveen took two wickets in three balls to reduce KKR to 15/2 in the third over before Dhawal Kularni made it 21/3 in the next.
Praveen had a dream start and also bowled a maiden to Suryakumar Yadav for a fine spell of 3-1-7-2 to make things worse for KKR.
In the next over, Yadav tried to break free to guide the ball over Raina at the slip but the the left-handed skipper took a stunning catch jumping high in the air and plucked the ball with his right hand to make it four-down for the Knights inside the Powerplay.
KKR almost suffered a fifth dismissal on 32/4 but Tambe dropped Shakib, then on three, at third man boundary.
Gujarat introduced spin in the 10th over bringing in Shivil Kaushik and things started to look bright with Pathan taking charge against the chinaman bowler with a smack over his head for a six and followed it up with a boundary. With Pathan taking charge, Shakib did well to rotate the strike as the duo scripted an amazing recovery and Raina’s spin trio of Shivil, Tambe and Jadeja failed to give any breakthrough.
Pathan, who had scored a match-winning 60 not out from 29 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore, completed his half-century in 31 balls.
Scoreboard Kolkata Knight Riders: R. Uthappa c Karthik b Kulkarni 14, G. Gambhir b Kumar 5, M. Pandey c Karthik b Kumar 0, S. Yadav c Raina b Smith 4, Shakib Al Hasan (not out) 66, Y. Pathan (not out) 63. Extras (lb2, w4) 6. Total: (for 4 wkts, in 20 overs) 158. FoW: 1-15, 2-15, 3-21, 4-24. Bowling: Kumar 4-1-19-2, Kulkarni 4-0-30-1 (1w), Smith 2-0-14-1 (1w), Bravo 4-0-39-0 (1w), Kaushik 1-0-14-0, Jadeja 3-0-25-0, Tambe 2-0-15-0.
