A brilliant all-round effort from Yusuf Pathan, taking 2 for 23 and then hitting 29 from 25 balls helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Pune Warriors by seven wickets and go third in the table above Mumbai Indians with 16 points at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai.
Kolkata won the toss, elected to field and got off to good start removing openers Manish Pandey and Jesse Ryder in the first four overs with just 17 runs on the board. Yusuf Pathan had Ryder caught at mid off via a flighted delivery which was mistimed by the former.
Pandey looked promising hitting two boundaries off Brett Lee in the first over and then another in the third over before he was finally trapped leg before wicket in the fourth over by Iqbal Abdulla. Callum Ferguson and Ganguly then added cautious 27 runs for the third wicket before Ferguson was fooled by an away going delivery and stumped off Shakib Al Hasan for 16 in the 9th over.
Ganguly then showed some glimpses of old form hitting a straight six over Shakib's head. The prince of Kolkata and Uthappa added 27 runs from four overs before a listless Ganguly flicked one straight to backward point. Yusuf then made it 79 for five in the next over when he had Uthappa caught in the deep on the leg side.
Yuvraj played an uncharacteristic innings hitting 24 from 26 balls, adding 34 runs from 33 balls with Sachin Rana before he mistimed a pull off Balaji, top-edging it straight into the hands of the keeper. Balaji then cleaned up Rana off the final delivery of the innings via brilliant Yorker restricting Pune to 118 for 7 from 20 overs.
Chasing an easy target of 118, Kolkata got off to a bad start losing Goswami in the first over caught behind off Alfonso Thomas. The next two overs yielded 25 runs as two over throws from Ferguson benefited the opposition with 10 runs while Tiwary finished off the second over with a six over mid wicket.
Tiwary and Gambhir added 46 runs from seven overs before the former chopped one on off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan then took the center stage adding 64 from 8 overs as Gambhir brought up his half-century from 43 balls. Yusuf Pathan, who played a blazing innings of 29 from 25 balls which included three fours and a six, then departed to a magnificent catch by Ganguly at mid off off Parnell.
The damage had already been done and with just two runs needed from 24 balls, Gambhir and Bhatia finished off the game winning the match by seven wickets with 20 balls to spare. Gambhir remained not out on 54 from 46 deliveries with seven hits to the fence.
Yusuf Pathan was named the man of the match for his all-round efforts on the field.
Result: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wickets (with 20 balls remaining)
Scores: Pune Warriors: 118/7
Kolkata Knight Riders: 119/3
Man of the Match: Yusuf Pathan
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