Irfan Pathan shines with his all-round show for Reliance Sports Club

He is a fighter, he doesn’t back off from challenges despite adverse circumstances, he rises each time after a fall, dusts himself and runs in again. This is a description very close to depicting what Irfan Pathan has been through in his career and how he is determined to not let the hurdles come in his way of attaining what he’s set out for.

After being sacked from the Baroda team having led them for the first two matches in the Ranji Trophy without a real reason or justification Irfan has been working hard to hone his skills further. He remodelled his bowling action with the help of TA Sekhar a master of this craft and is currently playing a local T20 tournament representing the Reliance Sports Club in the Kiran More Premier League T20.

His team has played three matches in the league thus far and has won them all. The left-arm pacer has been with them in the last couple of games and produced two noticeable performances. In his first outing against YSC, the 33-year-old returned with figures 4-1-22-1 and contributed 10* in the chase.

The Cameo

In the following match, his team was batting first and the veteran walked out in the penultimate over of the inning. He faced just 7 balls but boy, he smoked it smashing four sixes, and concluded the innings in nearly perfect fashion hitting four maximums in the last six balls. The over from Noor Pathan read- 0, 6, 6, 6, 0, 6.

Irfan played a cameo worth 25 off just 7 to take his team to 278/1 in their share of 20 overs. It was batsman Kedar Deodhar who scored a magnificent hundred and set his team up for a gigantic total. In their reply, MS University hardly got going.

After thumping them with the bat, Irfan returned to blow off their chasing effort. He took a four-wicket haul in his spell to break the backbone of MS University’s batting order. He concluded the game with brilliant figures of 4-0-21-4, the left armer picked three wickets in 4 balls and as a result, the opposition could only muster a meek 149/9 in response.

Upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali T20

A tournament where he and the Baroda team have excelled in the past, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the T20 tournament will be played right ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auctions this year. The Baroda team is to be picked in the first week of January while the BCCI has preponed the schedule from February and now it will be played from January 21-27.

Irfan was a part of the West Zone team last season when SM T20 was played as a zonal tournament, prior to that he led Baroda to the final in 2015-16 on the back of his all-round performance. After a dream run right through, they had finished second to Uttar Pradesh.