[Watch] Yusuf Pathan evokes nostalgia with powerful knock in the inaugural US Masters T10 League
Former Indian batter Yusuf Pathan brought back the blast from the past in his quick-fire knock of 41* from 21 deliveries to propel his side, the New Jersey Legends, to a competitive total of 96/3 in 10 overs.
It was his side's second game of the inaugural US Masters T10 League, featuring six teams playing seven games each in the league stage. Their season opener against the California Knights was washed out without a ball being bowled.
After being asked to bat first, the Legends were reduced to 25/2 in the fourth over following the dismissals of openers Jesse Ryder and Gautam Gambhir. However, with no real support from the other end to accelerate the scoring, Yusuf Pathan took matters into his own hands, smashing two 4s and three 6s.
Please watch the highlights of Pathan's power-paced knock below:
The 40-year-old was particularly severe on his former Indian teammate S Sreesanth, smashing him for two sixes in his innings. Pathan followed up his blistering knock with a terrific spell with the ball, picking up the wickets of Parthiv Patel and Shehan Jayasuriya.
Unfortunately, his heroics went in vain as the New Jersey Legends suffered a six-wicket defeat with a ball to spare.
The 10-over tournament will see the six teams battle it out to finish in the top four to qualify for the playoffs, starting August 26, and culminating with the grand finale on Sunday, August 27.
Yusuf Pathan's International and IPL career at a glance
Yusuf Pathan had an excellent white-ball career for India and was part of two World Cup-winning teams in 2007 and 2011.
The dashing batter played 57 ODIs and 22 T20I in a six-year international career from 2007 to 2012, scoring over 1,000 runs with two ODI centuries. Pathan's major high points came in the first few years of the IPL, where he was among the most featured batters in the middle order.
He played his first three seasons for the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and was crucial to the franchise winning the inaugural IPL in 2008. Pathan scored 435 runs at an average of 31.07 and an intimidating strike rate of 179.
The right-hander made several match-winning contributions, including a Player of the Match performance in the final, scoring 56 off 39 deliveries in a tense run chase.
Pathan then moved to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for seven years from 2011 to 2017, before finishing with the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in 2018 and 2019. The Gujarat-born batter was central to KKR's dual IPL title runs in 2012 and 2014.
Overall, Yusuf Pathan finished his IPL career with over 3,000 runs at an average of almost 30 and a 142.97 strike rate.