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It was a perfect all-round show from Yuvraj Singh, capturing his maiden five-wicket haul with the ball and following it up with a responsible unbeaten half century to aid India’s victory against the gritty never-say-die Ireland in yesterday’s Group B Match at Bangalore. It was a low scoring game on a slow turning pitch with Ireland getting bowled out for 207 having lost the toss and asked to bat first in the afternoon.
Ireland Innings
Zaheer Khan picked up two early wickets to put Ireland on the backfoot straightaway. In just the fourth ball of the match, Zaheer went through the bat pad gate of Paul Stirling to clean him up with a late inswinger. In the 3rd over, Zaheer got the important wicket of the left handed Ed Joyce who was caught behind of the inside edge in a forward defence to a delivery that nipped back of the seam.
Ireland from 9 for 2 recovered gradually thanks to a promising stand between the left handed pair of Skipper William Porterfield and Wicket Keeper Batsman Niall O’Brien. India’s main spinners – Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla failed to create any impact and soon Ireland got its run rate kicking up as welll. Piyush Chawla in particular had a miserable time as he bowled quite a lot of bad deliveries while Harbhajan Singh was yet again struggling to beat the batsmen and hence there were no wickets for him.
India could break the third wicket stand only through sheer luck with Niall O’Brien getting run out by the combination of Kohli and Dhoni in the 27th over. It was a risky single attempted by Porterfield when he had played a cover drive to leave Niall O’Brien (46 from 78 balls with 3 fours) running and diving into the danger end but all in vain. The two left handers put up 113 runs for the 3rd wicket. Their efforts were wasted by the middle order though with Andrew White and Kevin O’Brien falling in quick succession to part time left arm spinner Yuvraj Singh. White was caught behind edging a cover drive off a turning ball while the big hitting Kevin O’Brien patted a return catch after puncing at the ball way too early.
Skipper William Porterfield too got out spooning a backfoot drive off Yuvraj to extra covers to leave Ireland at 160 for 6 in the 38th over. Porterfield made full use of a life which was offered early on when Yusuf Pathan dropped a simple overhead catch at second slip off Zaheer Khan’s bowler. Porterfield made India pay for the mistake with his 75 from 104 balls (with 6 fours and a six).
Yuvraj Singh picked up two more good wickets of John Mooney (lbw to a turning ball) and Alex Cussack who made a valuable 24 before he got hit on the pad first by a skidder around off). Zaheer Khan returned back to have no.10 Dockrell edging a widish yorker behind the stumps and Munaf Patel wrapped up the innings by trapping Trent Johnston lbw infront of middle and leg. Ireland were bowled out for 207 in 47.5 overs mainly because of the efforts of Zaheer Khan (9-1-30-3) and Yuvraj Singh (10-0-31-5).
India Innings
It was going to be a slightly nervous chase for India once it was reduced to 24 for 2 in the 6th over due to two tame dismissals on a pitch where the ball was stopping onto the bat. In the 2nd over of the innings, veteran Trent Johnston got a wicket off his very first ball when Virender Sehwag went back for a flick around leg but only to give a return catch off the leading edge! No.3 Gautam Gambhir was caught clipping a short delivery off the pads from the same bowler uppishly to get caught at short fine leg.
Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli had to repair the early damages which they did efficiently well until the former fell playing a poor shot to make it 87 for 3 in the 21st over. Sachin Tendulkar (38 from 56 balls with 4 fours) attempted a predetermined slog sweep off to a skidding full ball from young left arm spinner George Dockrell which defeated the shot and hit the back thigh infront of middle. There was huge pressure on India when a well set Virat Kohli (34 from 53 balls with 3 fours) got run out at the bowling end because of a mix up with Yuvraj Singh who initially was interested in taking a run from backward point but only to change his mind later.
India was at 100 for 4 when Skipper MS Dhoni joined Yuvraj Singh. The experienced duo eased India out of a potentially dangerous position with a solid partnership of 67 runs before MS Dhoni (34 from 50 balls with 2 fours) got too lazy in stretching his frontfoot to get lbw to a skidder from George Dockrell in the 41st over. India was at 167 for 5 in the 41st over when Yusuf Pathan walked into the middle and he didn’t make any fuss at all like the other batsmen who were more content in accumulating the singles rather than attacking the inexperienced Irish bowlers.
Yusuf Pathan without wasting any time went after George Dockrell to collect a four and a six and after that Ireland had to bow down to his destructive hitting. The match got over by the end of the 46th over with Yusuf Pathan cracking an unbeaten 30 from 24 balls with 2 fours and 3 sixes. Yuvraj Singh helped himself to an unbeaten 50 from 75 balls with 3 fours to get the Man of the Match award.