Yusuf Pathan turns the table at Eden Gardens

KOLKATA: This was the kind of murderous assault all of Kolkata had been waiting for in the last four seasons. A near-packed Eden Gardens saw Yusuf Pathan at his furious best as he single-handedly guided Kolkata Knight Riders to second place in the IPL 7 standings which gives them another home match, against Kings XI Punjab in Qualifier 1 next Tuesday.
Needing to chase down Sunrise Hyderabad's 160 for 7 in 15.2 overs to nudge ahead of Chennai Super Kings on net run-rate , KKR raced to the target in 14.2 overs in one of the most amazing chases in IPL's history.
Pathan bludgeoned 72 off 22 balls, smacking 5 fours and 7 sixes in an unforgettable display of power hitting which left the likes of Dale Steyn bamboozled. His 50 came in just 15 balls.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir (28 off 18, 4x4, 1x6) and Robin Uthappa (41 off 30, 4x4, 2x6) gave the team a brisk start after negotiating three pacy overs from Steyn.
But both fell in trying to accelerate. When the hitherto-underperforming Pathan came in, KKR needed 106 off 47 balls to achieve their mission of top-two.
Dropped on zero by Anirudh Srikkanth and again on 15 by Steyn off Parvez Rasool, Pathan went on undeterred to flatten Hyderabad's challenge. Sunrisers, who needed to win by a big margin to stay alive, were simply blown away by the Pathan storm.
Gambhir earlier did his side a great favour by winning the toss and unhesitatingly opting to field. It was just what the doctor ordered for the home team after Chennai Super Kings had earlier in the evening thrown down the gauntlet by thrashing Royal Challengers Bangalore with 2.2 overs to spare.
CSK finished the league phase with 18 points and a net run rate of +0.385. The Knight Riders, who went into their final league game with 16 points, had to win to catch up with MS Dhoni's men and do it convincingly enough to push their NRR of +0.264 past CSK's .
For Sunrisers, the equation was much tougher. Hyderabad , in their endeavour to pile up a 200-plus total, made a false start. David Warner, their best bet, had his off stump uprooted by Morne Morkel in the very first over as he left a yawning gap between bat and pad while shaping for an ambitious drive.
KKR looked to be on course to restricting the Sunrisers to around 140, but some sloppy catching and poor outcricket helped push the total to 160.