Yusuf kicks and screams as KKR's playoff hopes end

Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and will bowl first. Squads: PWI XI: R Uthappa, A Finch, M Pandey, Y Singh, L Wright, A Mathews, R Gomez, W Parnell, B Kumar, A Murtaza, I Pandey. KKR XI: M Bisla, G Gambhir, J Kallis, R ten Doeschate, Y Pathan, M Tiwary, D Das, R Bhatia, S Senanayake, S Narine, L Balaji. To see the detailed scorecard,  CLICK HERE Pune Warriors 170/4 (20 overs) Pune had their best batting outing of the tournament. Everybody played their part well. It began with Aaron Finch and Robin Uthappa and as they so often have – they gave PWI a good start. Uthappa, in particular was looking very good before he was dismissed, on 25, while attempting to hit across the line. But Finch (48) and Manish Pandey (66) ensured that there were no hiccups. Yuvraj Singh (30) also came to the party late. The KKR spinners – Narine and Senanayake did well but Kallis and Balaji took quite a lot of stick. [caption id=“attachment_786013” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Yusuf kicked KKR out of the tournament. BCCI[/caption] Kolkata Knight Riders 163/7 (20 overs) In reply, KKR needed to get their opening right. But Bisla fell early and before you knew it, Kallis and Gambhir were back in the hut as well. However, Yusuf Pathan decided to make his presence felt. The PWI bowlers peppered him with short deliveries but he survived and then flourished. In fact, it all seemed to be on target, till he decided to play football in a cricket match. Pathan had made 77 off 43 balls at that point. Parnell bowled a good yorker length delivery and Pathan managed to somehow keep it out. It rolled along the pitch even as Pathan looked for it. And then he set off with a single, Parnell also attempted to get to the ball but before he could, Pathan kicked it away from him. The right-hander was given out for obstructing the field and that was that. But while Pathan was definitely kicking the ball, Parnell also attempted to stop the batsman. It’s surprising that the umpires didn’t consider that as obstruction too. Either which way, that was the end of the KKR challenge as well. The batsmen who followed simply didn’t have the same big-hitting ability. Result: Pune Warriors won by 7 runs. It ended KKR’s chances of making the playoffs. Turning point: It has to be the kick. Quotes Gambhir: The way Pathan was going we should have won the game. Pretty freak dismissal, not seen it in my career, but I don’t know. We haven’t played good cricket, not been consistent enough. Finch: We are happy to knock KKR off given that we had nothing else to play for tonight.