Yusuf Pathan stars as India Maharajas win charity match

Yusuf Pathan smashed an unbeaten fifty as India Maharajas defeated World Giants by six wickets in a special charity match here on Friday. The game was played ahead of Legends League Cricket, beginning here on Saturday. Yusuf, who had slammed the second-fastest IPL fifty in 15 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad here in their triumphant 2014 campaign, showed his old fury in a 35-ball 50 not out to take them home with eight balls to spare.

Yusuf, a winner of three IPL titles, struck all around the Eden including a huge six off Daniel Vettori into the stands in his assault to lead the charge. In all, he struck two sixes and five fours. No 3 Tanmay Srivastava (54) gave a fine support at the other end as the duo put together a match-turning 103-run partnership after Maharajas were reduced to 50/3 after the powerplay in pursuit of a challenging 171. It was time for Harbhajan to roll back the years at this favourite venue Eden Gardens where he had become the first Indian bowler to claim a Test hattrick in the epic 2001 Test win against Australia.

Leading the side after Virender Sehwag opted out of captaincy, the veteran off-spinner bowled Jacques Kallis round the legs and also took catches, including a well-judged backward running to dismiss Romesh Kaluwitharana to have the 15,000-odd crowd on its feet. But the star of the day was tall pacer Pankaj Singh, who returned with 5/26 which included a maiden over as World Giants managed 170/8 after they opted to bat.