Yusuf Pathan propels Kolkata home with fiery 60

Yusuf Pathan's unbeaten 29-ball 60 helped Kolkata beat Bangalore by five wickets in the Indian Twenty20 competition on Monday.

Pathan, with scores of 10, 19, 36, 12 and 9 in the competition this season, came to the crease in the ninth over after his captain Gautam Gambhir fell for 37. Kolkata - at that stage - had lost three wickets and were still 120 runs adrift from Bangalore's total.

Shane Watson added to Kolkata's woes by dismissing Manish Pandey in the 11th over. His dismissal brought Andre Russell and Pathan together. The hard-hitting duo defied a steep asking rate and put on 96 runs in 44 balls to power their side to a win, with five balls remaining.

Gambhir had earlier won the toss and opted to bowl first, on a surface that favoured batting, his bowler made scoring difficult and even the usually fluent Virat Kohli hit just four boundaries in his 44-ball 52. Shane Watson, Sachin Baby and Stuart Binny then took 54 off the last three overs to propel Bangalore to a sizeable 185.

Bangalore's bowlers troubled the batsmen initially, with Stuart Binny dismissing Robin Uthappa in the first over of the match. Yuzvendra Chahal then breached Chris Lynn's defences with a flighted leg break. Gambhir and Pandey's dismissal within eight balls of each other set Kolkata on the back foot.

With Pathan and Russell at the crease, Kolkata were never out of the game. The duo clubbed a six each in the first two overs they batted together. Russell then tore into Tabrez Shamsi and smashed him for two sixes and a four in the 15th over to reduce the margin to 63 from 30.

At the end of the 16th over, Bangalore required 47 from 24 balls. Pathan smashed four fours and a six of Watson, in the 17th over, and a six and a four off Shamsi in the 19th to seal the deal. "Unbelievable knock from Russell and Yusuf," Gambhir said.

"The way we started with the bat, not upto the mark. Especially at this ground, we knew 12 or 13 can be chaseable. Just a matter of hanging in there. We knew Surya could be dangerous as a finisher. Started very professionally. Morne came back very well. Umesh didn't have a great day but he is a quality bowler."