After Narine levels record, Pathan wants fastest fifty
YUSUF HAS PLAYED 12 MATCHES IN THE CURRENT IPL SEASON, TAKEN A WICKET AND SCORED 121 RUNS FOR KNIGHT RIDERS.
Records are meant to be broken but if you are a team man, the best seat to watch them is in the dressing room.
Sunday was one such day. Barely had Yusuf Pathan settled down in the dressing room to watch Kolkata Knight Riders’ reply to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 158, he knew something special was round the corner.
Yusuf had alone held the record for fastest 50 (15 balls) in the IPL till Sunday but now has to share with his teammate Sunil Narine. Narine, used so wonderfully well by KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir in this IPL as a pinch-hitting opener, blasted the RCB bowling on Sunday and took exactly the same number of balls to get to a 50 and set up the win. And the first one to stand up and applaud Narine was Yusuf himself. He had hit a 15-ball 50 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2014.
However, the ongoing season has not gone the way the 34-yearold allrounder would have wanted. He started the IPL-10 campaign on a great note, hammering 59 runs against Delhi Daredevils but has not been able to fire in the following games. “Yusuf is one of our batting mainstays. We are hoping to get a big knock from him soon. He has shown in the past seasons how destructive he can be. We believe in his abilities,” Manish Pandey had said this a few days back.
Yusuf made his ODI debut in the Tri-series in Bangladesh in 2008, after coming into limelight during that year’s IPL while playing for Rajasthan Royals. However, it has been more than five years since the all-rounder last played for India.
He has played 12 matches in the current IPL season, taken a wicket and scored 121 runs for KKR. With KKR almost through to the play-offs, Yusuf would be hoping to go out all guns blazing against Kings XI Punjab in their next encounter and score big.
With the KKR camp complementing and backing each other, it shouldn’t be long before the Baroda player finds form.