INDORE: It was Yuvraj Singh all the way as he stymied England once again to give India 2-0 lead in the ongoing seven One-Day International series. England went down by 54 runs without putting up much of a fight in the second ODI match of Hero Honda Cup 2008 here at the Maharani Usha Raje Cricket stadium yesterday.
Yuvraj, who was adjudged man-of-the-match for his all round performance, once again became a thorn in the flesh of the Englishmen as he dashed their hopes of coming level in the series. This time he not only performed spectacularly with the bat, scoring another century (118 in 122 balls), but rattled their batting line up with his bowling to claim four valuable wickets for 28 runs in his ten overs.
India putting on 292 for nine in their allotted 50 overs dismissed England for 238 in 47 overs to register a 54 runs triumph. England were themselves to blame as they left India off the hook after pinning them down to 29 for three in 7.3 overs, courtesy their pacer Stuart Broad. He claimed all the three wickets and finished with four wickets for 55 runs in his quota of 10 overs.
With three wickets down for India the body language of Englishmen indicated that they were out to revenge after their annihilating defeat at Rajkot in the first ODI match.
While chasing India’s total of 292 England’s overcautious approach against double spin attack of Yuvraj and Harbhajan Singh, who choked their innings, saw the required run rate keep climbs.
This was the time for English batsmen Owais Shah and Matt Prior to get on top of the Indian spinners but they probably thought that defensive approach was the best tactic in case of a big Indian total. They got bogged down for too long in the middle overs despite having wickets in hand and left too much to do during the third power play. Both Shah and Prior, however, departed in quick succession falling to the guile of Yuvraj.
Owais was the top scorer of the English team with 58 in 78 balls made with eight boundaries and one six while Prior posted 38 in 64 balls with four boundaries to his credit. Thereafter, England lost the way and India coasted to victory to go up 2-0 in the series. But all credit to India for applying the pressure.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni electing to bat after winning the toss and saw his team totter when England pacer Broad banished three batsmen opener Virendar Sehwag, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina in his first, second and third over.
However, after the first drink interval taken when 15 overs were completed with India on 61 for three, complacency set in the England team and it was from here that Yuvraj and Gautam Gambhir put their heads down together to repair the damage. The partnership between the two left-handers Yuvraj and Gambhir flowered and they went on to put up 134 for the fourth wicket in 22.3 overs. Gambhir fell to England skipper Pietersen, walking across his stumps as he tried to force the ball from outside the off stump and work it to the on-side.
He tried to clip it away but got an inside edge which rolled on to his stumps. He garnered 70 runs off 76 deliveries with the help of six boundaries to the fence and two over it.
