Yuvraj Singh's decade-long attempt to secure a permanent spot in the
Test team may have been thwarted once again this month, but in the first
Twenty20 against England he once again showed why he is indispensable
in limited-overs formats. First, his spell of left-arm spin upended
England's innings and then his burst of hitting smoothened India's path
to a comprehensive victory.
In the first international match at the Subrata Roy Stadium in Pune,
Alex Hales and Luke Wright had muscled 68 in seven overs for the second
wicket as England rattled along at more than 10 an over. Hales began
with two powerful pulls for four in the first over, and then showed off
his straight-hitting to sprint to a 26-ball half-century, his fourth for
England. Unlike Hales, Wright hadn't spent time in India with the
England Performance Programme squad but he too played a fluent
boundary-filled innings, not flustered by the change in conditions from
the Big Bash League in Australia.
Yuvraj's introduction in the ninth over transformed the game. He was the
seventh bowler MS Dhoni turned to as India desperately searched for
ways to stall the runs, and he immediately delivered. Five of the
previous six overs had been punished for 10 runs or more, but Yuvraj in
his first gave away just five singles. In his next, he had Luke Wright
caught at long-off. In his third, Hales was dropped by Dhoni, then
bowled before England captain Eoin Morgan gave long-on a catch. The
triple-blow sucked out the momentum from the innings, and by the end of
his spell the run-rate was down to around seven-and-a-half.
Ashok Dinda, leading India's pace attack though he himself is fairly new
to international cricket, delivered the perfect penultimate over,
taking two wickets and giving away only two runs. Either side of that
though, Dhoni's go-to bowler in Twenty20s, R Ashwin, and debutant fast
bowler Parvinder Awana were hit for two sixes in an over each as Jos
Buttler's unbeaten 33 lifted England to 157.
That was a score India looked happy to concede on a good track in a
stadium with short boundaries. Their task was made easier by the poor
line of England's new-ball bowlers, who gifted plenty of runs down the
leg side. Ajinkya Rahane, a near-permanent fixture on the India bench,
finally got a chance in the middle, and he jumpstarted the chase with a
couple of straight sixes.
Though Tim Bresnan got his first international wickets since September
by removing both Rahane and Gautam Gambhir in the fifth over, Yuvraj
kept the large crowd cheering with a 21-ball 38. That included an
onslaught on left-arm spinner Danny Briggs, who was taken for 18 in his
only over of the game. Soon after, Yuvraj top-edged a pull off Luke
Wright for six and though he connected solidly on the next delivery as
well, it soared too high and didn't clear the rope, falling in the
hands of Stuart Meaker.
India were already 93 for 3 in the 10th over by the time Yuvraj was
dismissed, and Suresh Raina and Dhoni weren't unduly troubled as India
knocked off the runs required to confirm victory in the 18th over.
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