After almost single-handedly engineering India's five-wicket win in the fourth ODI against New Zealand, Yusuf Pathan said that the blitzkrieg innings he played could be the turning point in his career. Along with hitting a 79-ball century on the way to eventually remaining unbeaten on 123 off 96 balls, Yusuf also grabbed three curical wickets to give India a 4-0 lead while helping chase down a stiff 315/7 from the New Zealanders.
"This is very special for me. Whenever I have played any good innings, they have been something special. This innings could be the turning point for my life and my career," Pathan said after the match.
"We (Pathan and Saurabh Tiwary) were talking we need to take the game till the end. We needed some runs because we were behind on Duck-worth-Lewis, but the ball came on well.
"When me and Rohit were playing, we were saying one of us has to stay till the end of the 50th over," Pathan added.
His skipper Gautam Gambhir also admitted that he had never seen such a whirlwind innings before.
"I have never seen something like this," he said.
"I have always said Yusuf can finish games on his own, and that's what he did today. I always felt till the time Yusuf was there we would win the game," he said.
New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori felt James Franklin had set the game for them with a blazing 98 but it was Pathan who stole the show with his brilliant innings.
"It's a great game of cricket. We were in the game, but Yusuf Pathan was pretty amazing. James played exceptionally well too to give us a formidable, but like I said Yusuf took the game away.
"That break should have favoured us actually, but it didn't work out that way. The outfield wasn't that bad after that rain. We just didn't get it right," he said.
SCOREBOARD
New Zealand
M Guptill c Singh b Nehra 30
B McCullum c Sharma b Ashwin 42
J How c Pathan b Nehra 4
R Taylor lbw b Ashwin 44
S Styris c Tiwary b Pathan 46
J Franklin not out 98
D Vettori b Pathan 17
K Mills b Pathan 1
N McCullum not out 13
Extras (8lb, 12w) 20
Total (for 7 wkts, 50 overs) 315
Fall: 62 (Guptill), 70 (How), 91 (McCullum), 170 (Styris), 210 (Taylor), 249 (Vettori), 251 (Mills).
Bowling: Z Khan 8-0-40-0 (3w), P Kumar 7-0-42-0 (1w), R Ashwin 10-0-66-2 (1w), A Nehra 9-1-70-2 2w), Y Singh 3-0-21-0, Y Pathan 9-0-49-3, R Sharma 4-0-19-0.
India
G Gambhir c Guptill b McKay 27
P Patel c sub (Williamson) b McCullum 53
V Kohli c Mills b McKay 0
Y Singh c How b McCullum 20
R Sharma c Vettori b Southee 44
Y Pathan not out 123
S Tiwary not out 37
Extras (4b, 3lb, 8w, 2nb) 17
Total (for 5 wkts, 48.5 overs) 321
Fall: 67 (Gambhir), 68 (Kohli), 103 (Singh), 108 (Patel), 188 (Sharma).
Bowling: K Mills 10-1-65-0 (2w), T Southee 10-0-64-1 (1w), A McKay 7-0-63-2 (3w), N McCullum 7.5-0-38-2, S Styris 4-1-27-0 (1w), D Vettori 10-0-57-0.
No comments:
Post a Comment