Yuvraj's five

India v Ireland, Group B, World Cup 2011, Bangalore

Yuvraj's five keep Ireland to 207

Yuvraj Singh 

Yuvraj Singh saved the blushes for India, allowing them to hide the ordinary effort from other spinners, as Ireland were bowled out for 207 in Bangalore. Ireland were eyeing a 250-plus target after a 113-run stand between William Porterfield and Niall O'Brien but a run out opened a window for Yuvraj to trigger a collapse.

The most significant moment of the innings came in the 27th over, with Ireland sitting pretty on 122 for 2, when a set Niall O'Brien couldn't make it in time to beat the throw from Virat Kohli in the covers. Dhoni did well to collect the slightly wayward throw and flick it onto the stumps. It was the beginning of the end.

As ever, Yuvraj ambled in like a Sunday-park bowler and as always proved to be street-smart. His art is very simple: he turns the ball slightly but his USP is the variation in pace, using a scrambled seam. He is usually slow and slower but surprises the batsmen with a quicker one. Today, too, he struck to his regular staple diet of slower ones; some were delivered with a round arm, some from higher straighter arm, and some with a crouched bent-knee release to get the ball to skid on.

If you just catch the highlights of his wickets, most would seem like soft dismissals. To an extent they were, but that's the illusion of nothingness he provides the batsmen, who then make seemingly silly mistakes. Andrew White was sucked into edging a flighted delivery to slip, Kevin O'Brien tapped one softly back, Porterfield swatted a short ball straight to cover and John Mooney and Alex Cusack were trapped by skidders that came in with the arm. When White fell in the 30th over, Ireland were 129 for 4 and by the time Yuvraj got Cusack, Ireland had slid to 184 in the 44th over.

Until then, India were looking really ragged in the field. Only Zaheer Khan bowled well to take two early wickets and William Porterfield and Niall O'Brien played risk-free cricket to lay a good platform. Their case was helped by some ordinary bowling from the spinners. Harbhajan Singh looked off-key, straying on to the pads once too often, Yusuf Pathan erred on length, often dragging them short, and Piyush Chawla hit the wrong lines.

The Ireland batsmen remained cool and calm, showed enough skill, and slowly the runs started to flow. Porterfield set the pace for the partnership with his non-fussy style of play. There were enough loose deliveries for him to tuck here, nudge there, and collect the odd boundary. He square-drove Munaf Patel and pulled Zaheer for boundaries but it was his batting against spin that stood out for its serenity. Time and again, he rocked back, waited and forced short deliveries from Yusuf through covers. Piyush offered him a leg-side delivery on a free-hit which was duly deposited beyond the square-leg boundary.

For his part, Niall was actually even more compact in his defense than Porterfield. He hit three boundaries - a cover drive off Zaheer, a pull against Munaf and a cut off Yusuf, but for the main part he worked the angles to milk the bowling. Slowly, but surely, Ireland had moved to a good position before that run out and Yuvraj brought India back in the game.