He single-handedly engineered India’s five-wicket win over New Zealand in the fourth ODI and all-rounder Yusuf Pathan said his blistering innings could be the turning point of his career.
The Baroda batsman scalped three crucial wickets and slammed an unbeaten 96-ball 123 down the order as India zoomed past New Zealand’s victory target of 315 with seven balls to spare at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here.
“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 Duckworth-Lewis, but the ball came on well.
“When I 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.
