Yusuf Pathan’s gusty 29 balls 60 run innings against Royal Challengers Bangalore helped Kolkata Knight Riders to win the match from a difficult situation. Yusuf Pathan hit three towering sixes and six fours. His 96 runs stand with Andre Russell, the man of the match for that game, was the most important partnership of the match.
Captain Gautam Gambhir after winning the match praised Pathan’s knock. At a Kolkata Knight Riders lost their top four and after Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey’s departure Pathan and Russell’s innings snatched the match from Bangalore.
Yusuf was asked to play his natural shot when was walking up to the square from the dugout. Batting coach Kallis and bowling coach Wasim Akram gave him the pep talk. Yusuf revealed what dugout (read: team management) told him before leaving for batting, “When I was sitting in the dugout our coach Jacques Kallis told me to take my time and play my natural game, and if I am able to do that we can chase it down. Wasim Bhai (Wasim Akram) who was sitting behind me, also told me the wicket suits my style of play and if I get settled I will enjoy batting on this wicket. Piyush Chawla also walked up to me and said Yusuf Bhai this is your type of pitch, the ball will come on the bat and you can play your shots.”
He is grateful to them as their suggestion helped him to play his natural shots and there was no extra pressure on him. “The message from the dugout was just to go out there and express myself they all believed we could win if I got going no matter what the required rate was. That gave me a lot of confidence and I am happy I could play that knock and see the team through,” he said.
As Kolkata Knight Riders has been doing well consistently well at the top of the order, the middle orders got little opportunity to show their caliber. But this time, the job was tough and it needed someone to play the role of sheet anchor. Pathan, who love to play big shots, made most of the flat Chinnsamy pitch. When the Bangalore bowlers thought half of their job done Pathana and Russell shed them.
“Our openers have been batting really well Gautam (Gambhir) and Robin (Uthappa) have been giving us great starts. They have been working really hard in the nets and that has given other batsmen a chance to play their natural game. More often than not guys like Russell and myself will be required to bat only if our top order has got out early so we have been preparing ourselves for it and when the moment actually arrived last night we could pull it off.” Pathan said.
Yousuf also thinks their special camp in South Africa before this IPL also helped him to modify his skills and improved his fitness level. Yousuf was seen taking some sharp catches and save boundaries diving at the line.
“Ahead of the IPL season, we had a training camp in South Africa with Andrew Leipus (KKR team physio) and Adrian Le Roux (KKR team physical trainer). We worked really hard on our body, we did strength training, worked out in the gym under their guidance, they also provided us specific diets. We played a few practice games against the local sides that had some quality bowlers and overall that has really helped us mentally and physically getting in shape and to be in a better position when we go out there and play on the field.”
He further added, “I have worked hard on my fitness and fielding and it is working pretty well for me not only with my catching skills but also with my fielding and I feel lot more confident now to dive around and even while fielding in the slips, I am able to take the sharp catches.”
Yusuf also revealed his and Russell’s plan during their match-winning partnership. ““I and Russell didn’t discuss many things our focus was just to back ourselves and our ability to play the big shots. We were not really concerned about the scoring rate; we knew if we could stay there until the end we had a really good chance of winning it.”
After Russell left Suryakumar Yadav joined him and played the winning stroke after that Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli congratulated the former.
He also revealed what Virat told him, “Virat congratulated me for the knock and said that I played well. I also took the opportunity to appreciate him, he has been playing some wonderful cricket for the last two years, and he has evolved as a mature batsman and a leader. It was just our way to praise each other after a good game.” Yusuf said.