JOIN USYuvi fire singes Pakistan
Few can fuse style and power like Yuvraj Singh. The left-hander underlined his destructive powers on Friday to lay the foundation for an Indian victory against Pakistan in the second T20 international at the Sardar Patel Gujarat stadium.
His 36-ball 72 powered India to 192 for five, and then the Indian bowlers produced a rather tidy effort to limit Pakistan to 181 for seven for an 11-run win that helped the home side level the two-match series 1-1.
But it all began with Yuvraj. This was his first limited-over outing in Motera after reducing Australia to pulp with a belligerent fifty in the World Cup quarterfinals in 2011. He also had made a 74 in the first innings here in the first Test against England last month.
Cut to present, Yuvraj was in brilliant touch right from the word go, coming in when India were at 53 for two in the seventh over. Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez had emphasised several times in the last few days that bowling has been their stronger suit, but once Yuvraj got going their bowlers were not in picture.
The pitch was vastly different from the one at Bangalore, offering hardly anything for bowlers and the line of Pakistan bowlers too offered him enough freedom to go for his shots. On a surface where margin of error was so narrow, an experienced set of T20 bowlers bowled either too short or too full, allowing Yuvraj to pull and slog sweep at will.
And there were a lot of them. Sixes flowed all over the park, and the way Yuvraj demolished Saeed Ajmal, the most successful T20 bowler in the world, was spectacular.
The Punjab southpaw carted the off-spinner for four sixes in the innings, three on the trot in the 19th over, and in the end calculations that big over made significant difference. It was a blinding attack that left the dreaded spinner answerless.
Sohail Tanvir, another T20 specialist in Pakistan ranks, too wasn’t spared the scathing blade of Yuvraj, getting walloped for two successive sixes and Pakistan bowling fell apart quite stunningly.
However, Yuvraj wasn’t alone in his task as skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni too participated in the carnage with a swift 33, helping Yuvraj realise 97 runs in just 7.2 overs for the fourth wicket. By the time, Yuvraj returned to the pavilion, lofting Umar Gul to Shoaib Malik near the sight screen, India had reached way beyond the grasp of Pakistan.
But Pakistan weren’t ready to fade away without a fight. The visitors started off quite strongly through openers Nasir Jamshed and Ahmed Shehzad, galloping to 54 for no loss in the six-over Power Play segment. But the introduction of spin changed the whole scenario. R Ashwin, who was quite off-colour in the T20s against England, came back strongly on a pitch that suited his kind of bowling, and the 5.00 pm start also ensured that there wasn’t much dew to trouble the spinners.
Dhoni also wisely chose the off-spin of Suresh Raina unlike in the earlier matches in which he opted for Virat Kohli’s part-time seam-up stuff. The move paid rich dividends as the Uttar Pradesh man conceded just 12 runs off his two overs, and Ashwin 28 off his four, making it 40 off six overs between them.
Those overs took the momentum away from Pakistan, leaving them to do so much in the end overs. Hafeez played an absolute blinder (55, 26b, 6x4, 3x6) but Ashok Dinda found his range at the precise time, bowling a mix of slow balls and yorkers to derail Pakistan’s chase.