It won’t be easy for Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers at Kolkata: Yusuf Pathan

Yusuf Pathan has been in commanding form for the Kolkata Knight Riders notching up some thunderous match-winning knocks. KKR are set to host the Royal Challengers Bangalore for a mouthwatering contest on Monday. Bangalore is also high after their superlative performance with the bat at home against the Gujarat Lions. But despite hosting the game Kolkata needs to be wary of the Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers duo; both the batsmen have been at their best and demoralizing the opposition bowling attacks.

On the eve of the game, KKR’s middle order star Yusuf Pathan said that it won’t be that easy for RCB to settle down and fire at the Eden Gardens when the two sides meet.

The conditions in Kolkata would be largely different from what they are used to playing at the Chinnaswamy. The ball grips and turns and Kolkata have a great spin attack as well in the likes of Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Brad Hogg and Shakib Al Hasan.

“You have to praise both of them. They got a hundred each. Virat has three hundreds now. But at the Eden it is a different wicket and an away match for them,” Yusuf told reporters at an event in Kolkata.

“The conditions are also different, so they need to settle down once again which won’t be easy. We have been playing here so we have the home advantage. We will be concentrating on the positives.”

Yusuf himself has been in great touch, performing the finisher’s role for Kolkata well this season with a strike-rate of 165.62 this season. Yusuf scored an 18-ball 37 against Rising Pune Supergiants on a rain-interrupted match, where they were asked to chase down 66 in 9 overs. Yusuf won the match for his side with 4 overs to spare.

“I was not thinking about much, when I came out to bat. I have been playing well this season so I was confident. Just wanted to play like how I have been playing and got the results,” Yusuf said.

After the loss, the RPS coach Stephen Fleming had lashed out against the Duckworth-Lewis and was quoted saying that “Duckworth-Lewis is rubbish”. But Yusuf Pathan had a different aspect of view about the Duckworth-Lewis method. “Yes, it is a problem when matches get reduced that way but we are professional cricketers and we need to adjust to it,” he said.

“Whoever has made the system must have thought about it before making such a thing. My job is to play cricket and play according to the conditions.”

RCB is one of the teams that has conceded a lot of runs in this tournament, and when asked about the misfired bowling unit, Yusuf said: “You never know when things can click, you can’t predict. If you say they have strong batting that might also not click on certain days. It is not like that bowlers can’t win you matches.”

KKR v RCB match preview – IPL 9, Match 48 Preview: Kohli & Co. face the Eden test