Yusuf Pathan was fantastic: Warne

Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne lauded the performance of his hard-hitting batsman Yusuf Pathan, who helped his team clinch the match against Kolkata Knight Riders in the first Super Over witnessed at the Indian Premier League on Thursday.

Needing six runs from the final over of the match to win, Kamran Khan bowled a sensational over as he dismissed Kolkata Knight Riders’ Sourav Ganguly off the penultimate delivery of the innings with the Knight Riders still needing 2 runs to win.

Ishant Sharma could only manage a single off the final delivery as the match was tied and the result was to be decided via the Indian Premier League’s first-ever Super Over.

Warne selected Kamran Khan as the bowler to bowl the Super Over. He conceded 15 runs to Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum – openers of the Kolkata Knight Riders as Gayle struck three consecutive boundaries before losing his wicket in the final ball of the Super Over.

Asked whether there were other bowlers in contention to bowl the tense Super Over, Warne said, “"We thought about Yusuf and myself as spin options. But I thought if a couple of deliveries went, then the ball would have got wet because it's pretty dewy.”

“Kamran gave six runs off the last over and I thought he did well to hold his nerve.”

Needing 16 to win, Warne nominated all-rounders Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja and Dimitri Mascarenhas as his three batsmen to face the Super Over bowled by Ajantha Mendis – who had the best figures for Kolkata, picking up two wickets for 19 runs from four overs.

However, Yusuf Pathan only needed four balls to overhaul the required target as he smashed two sixes and one four on his way to registering the first points for his team, in the second season of the Indian Premier League.

"Yusuf Pathan was fantastic," said Warne post the match. "To have walked out and clubbed two sixes like that, was well done."

Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Brendon McCullum also acknowledged Pathan’s knock saying, “We thought we had got ourselves across the line. In the Super Over we thought we had a reasonable score, but Yusuf came out and took it away from us."

During the first innings, Yusuf Pathan - who was rightly named Man of the Match - helped Rajasthan reach a competitive total of 150 by scoring 42 runs from 21 balls, with the help of six boundaries and two sixes.