Shane Warne rates the Yusuf Pathan blast as the best innings ever he has watched. “I have watched a lot of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara knocks. This was the best I have seen,” said the Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain, on the fastest IPL hundred, rattled up in 37 balls.
Mumbai Indians became the first team in IPL 2010 to face the Pathan test. Many other bowlers will face the heat when the RR blaster takes the battle into rival camps. Sachin Tendulkar tried out six bowlers, made repeated field changes to make the batsman think.
Bowlers and fielders are aware now that Pathan does not spend too much time thinking at the crease, for him batting is an expression of power in his shoulders and instinctive assessment of length. The knock
was just another delightful day at work for the blaster.
He warmed up for action against Bangladesh spinner Ali Murtuza, hitting three sixes, then doused R Sathish’s enthusiasm with two sixes, four boundaries in one over as RR’s main hope raced to 53 off 21 balls. Tendulkar put fielders on the ropes as Ryan McLaren steamed in. Pathan stretched and glided the ball to the fence at third-man.
Tendulkar and Jayasuriya, two destroyers of bowlers’ resolve, watched in amazement as Pathan scooped one short-pitched Ryan delivery over cover and questioned Malinga’s resolve with a firm drive to the
sightscreen. The RR turned to each stand and waved his bat as if urging the MI supporters to commit the sight of his bat to their memory.
Pathan asked for a change of bats soon, MI bowlers mentally geared themselves up for the massacre to continue when Sathish found an unconventional solution to the problem with the run out at the non-striker end. The RR batsmen just walked off in a hurry, dazed at the outcome and promising silently to punish the bowler another day.
Tendulkar praised Pathan’s knock, then pointed that the RR hitter’s run out as the turning point. “Pathan played well. I thought his run out by Sathish was smart thinking and the turning point in the match.”
