IPL 4 Match 65: Kolkata Knight Riders Score Facile over the Pune Warriors; Pathan Scores

The clash between the Pune Warriors and the Kolkata Knight Riders was more in the interest of one team than another. However, Sourav Ganguly alone would not be enough to upset Shah Rukh Khan's men as the competition never crossed the Pune Warriors' mind in the IPL 4 season.

yusuf pathan kolkata knight riders

Yusuf Pathan scored all round, picking up key wickets and scoring the runs in the end that led to a rather easy and comprehensive win for the Kolkata Knight Riders over the Pune Warriors India at the DY Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

Jesse Ryder never had a chance to blossom with Pathan picking his first of two wickets. And Kolkata Knight Riders had bowling resources that did not affect their chances at all. The Pune Warriors batsmen seemed to get starts only to fail disappointingly, prompting the feeling that they were not motivated enough to win it knowing that the IPL 4 season had already passed them by.

Sourav Ganguly was a the second best on eighteen runs while Yuvraj Singh made twenty-four runs, but it shows a couple of things. Firstly, it made little sense to keep the Pune Warriors captain batting so low and for the batting order to leave the run crunching to the final overs. Shakib Al Hasan picked up Ganguly and Robin Uthappa in successive overs while Laxmipathy Balaji went a step further to pick up two wickets, that of Yuvraj Singh and Rana to end the innings rather poorly for the Pune Warriors at 118.

With a modest target to stare, the Kolkata Knight Riders were led to a commanding victory by their captain, Gautam Gambhir, who took on the onus with aplomb after Jacques Kallis was rendered unfit to bat after copping an injury earlier in the day.

If Gambhir's half century was all about the Kolkata Knight Riders' success this season, Pathan's twenty-nine runs was also relevant in the context of the Kolkata Knight Riders winning it easily in the end with more than three overs to spare.