KOLKATA: Waiting desperately for rain, Kolkata got a hurricane on Saturday. Thanks to that, the Knight Riders won a seemingly impossible race against the clock to secure the second spot on the table, which gave them a chance to play Qualifier 1 at Eden Gardens.
It’s the best place in the playoffs, as the loser there gets a second chance to reach the final.
Gallery: Yusuf Top Knight on Saturday Night
It was not just about cricketers. To figure out what the Knight Riders needed to beat Chennai Super Kings in the race for the second spot one needed mathematicians. It appeared that they had to make 161 in 15.2 overs and when hopes were receding, out came Yusuf Pathan. What followed was beyond the realm of imagination even in the helter-skelter world of T20.
The ferocious striker clobbered 72 runs in 22 balls and the jaw-dropping exhibition of savage and brutal hitting made a mockery of the equations. At 78 for four after 10 overs, Kolkata needed 83 off 32. They achieved it with six balls to spare! The pulverizing knock contained five fours and seven sixes and the highlight of the chase was the 13 over by Dale Steyn which yielded 26 runs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad needed a win and a total of 160 wasn’t that bad. They were doing well till the halfway stage, but committed a match-turning error. Pathan was on zero when Anirudh Srikanth dropped a sitter off Karn Sharma at the mid-wicket fence. He made them pay a high price as the ball started flying towards and over the fence at unnerving regularity.
There are wins which fetch more than just the points. For the Knight Riders, it was one of those, as it came with a tremendous amount of self-belief. Riding the wave of six successive wins before Saturday’s match, thanks to Pathan they got a seventh which will stand them in good stead ahead of the Qualifier. Now on, it will be nothing is impossible. Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals or Mumbai Indians, whoever it is, will be wary of a team high on all fronts.