Warriors stun ousted Kolkata

Cricket365 15 May 2013

The Pune Warriors recorded their first win in nine matches on Wednesday, beating the Kolkata Knight Riders by seven runs in controversial circumstances to knock the defending champions out of the tournament.

Kolkata needed to win to have a slim chance of reaching the play-offs, but they failed to score the 171 required after Yusuf Pathan, on 77 at the time, was given out for obstructing the field with just 13 balls to go.

Pathan was running for his ground, but seemed to step out of his way to side-foot the ball away from the fielder on his way through. The third umpire ruled that he had done so on purpose, and he had to walk, after he had done all the hard yard to keep his side in the game.

Pune batted first and made 170 for three, with Manish Pandey scoring 66 and skipper Aaron Finch making 48 off 32 balls. Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa also contributed with 30 and 25 respectively in a much improved effort.

Kolkata lost three wickets within the first five overs, as Gautam Gambhir, Manvinder Bisla and Jacques Kallis all failed to impress, and they were on just 29 when Yusuf and Ryan ten Doeschate joined forces.

The pair put on 98 together in nearly 12 overs and while the asking rate was still over 10, it seemed that the Knight Riders would reach their target. But the Dutchman was out for 42 in the 16th over and wickets began to tumble.

Manoj Tiwary was out for a duck, but Pathan continued to score the runs required, before disaster struck. What was going through his mind as he kicked the ball away only he would know, but the shock on his team-mates' faces told a thousand words.

Once he was gone, Debabrata Das and Sachithra Senanayake has little hope of getting the runs, and they ended on 163 for seven, effectively ending their title defence, which had not gone well in general.

Kolkata Knight Riders: M Bisla, G Gambhir, J Kallis, Y Pathan, R ten Doeschate, M Tiwary, D Das, R Bhatia, S Senanayake, S Narine, L Balaji

Pune Warriors: R Uthappa, A Finch, M Pandey, Yuvraj Singh, L Wright, A Mathews, R Gomez, W Parnell, B Kumar, A Murtaza, I Pandey