India beat Ireland by five wickets

An all-round show by Yuvraj Singh helped India pull off a nervy five-wicket victory over Ireland in their Group B match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium to stay unbeaten in the tournament.

Yuvraj took his first five-wicket haul to help India bowl out Ireland for a modest 207 and then followed that up with a responsible knock of 50 of 75 balls to help his team out of a spot of bother.

Yuvraj and his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (34 in 50 balls) played uncharacteristically sedate knocks and stitched together a 67-run partnership to set India well on their course to victory.

The duo came together with India precariously perched at 100-4 after Sachin Tendulkar (38) and Virat Kohli (34) fell in quick succession.

Following Dhoni’s dismissal, Yusuf Pathan blazed a quickfire 30 off 24 balls with three towering sixers to finish off the match.

Ireland’s captain William Porterfield scored a fighting 75 in 104 balls after his team were invited to bat by Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Yuvraj came on in the 26th over and bowled with excellent flight and guile to finish with a career-best five for 31, including the key wickets of Porterfield and Kevin O’Brien, scorer of the World Cup’s fastest ever century on Wednesday.

Known more for his explosive batting, Yuvraj showed that his left-arm off spin was just as lethal as he bowled his quota of 10 overs on the trot, taking wickets at regular intervals to ensure that the Ireland run rate never took off.

Earlier, Zaheer Khan gave India the perfect start by bowling Paul Stirling in the first over of the day and removing Ed Joyce in his next over. He finished with three for 30.

Ireland went into a shell and crawled to 27-2 after 10 overs as Zaheer got the ball to move around dangerously and Dhoni brought on his spinners from the fourth over of the day.

Porterfield and Niall O’Brien (46) steadied the Irish innings as they mixed some determined batting with some pugnacious strokeplay to lead the fightback with a stubborn 113-run partnership.

O’Brien fell short of a well deserved 50 after he was run out by a smart piece of fielding by Virat Kohli.

Andrew White (5) fell soon after to herald the entry of Kevin O’Brien, fresh from his amazing match-winning 113 off 63 balls against England on Wednesday.

He did not get a chance to repeat his heroics this time as he fell to a smart catch by Yuvraj off his own bowling and Ireland had slipped from a comfortable 122-2 to 147-5.

Porterfield, meanwhile, held the fort at one end as the wickets fell at the other but he was the sixth wicket to fall. Some more resistance by the lower order helped Ireland inch over the 200-run mark.

Yuvraj took his first five-wicket haul to help India bowl out Ireland for a modest 207 and then followed that up with a responsible knock of 50 of 75 balls to help his team out of a spot of bother.

Yuvraj and his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (34 in 50 balls) played uncharacteristically sedate knocks and stitched together a 67-run partnership to set India well on their course to victory.

The duo came together with India precariously perched at 100-4 after Sachin Tendulkar (38) and Virat Kohli (34) fell in quick succession.

Following Dhoni’s dismissal, Yusuf Pathan blazed a quickfire 30 off 24 balls with three towering sixers to finish off the match.

SCOREBOARD

Ireland:

W. Porterfield c Harbhajan b Yuvraj 75

P. Stirling b Zaheer 0

E. Joyce c Dhoni b Zaheer 4

N. O’Brien run out 46

A. White c Dhoni b Yuvraj 5

K. O’Brien c and b Yuvraj 9

A. Cusack lbw b Yuvraj 24

J. Mooney lbw b Yuvraj 5

T. Johnston lbw b Patel 17

G. Dockrell c Dhoni b Zaheer 3

B. Rankin not out 1

Extras (lb4, nb6, w8) 18

Total (for all out; 47.5 overs) 207

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Stirling), 2-9 (Joyce), 3-122 (N. O’Brien), 4-129 (White), 5-147 (K. O’Brien), 6-160 (Porterfield), 7-178 (Mooney), 8-184 (Cusack), 9-201 (Dockrell), 10-207 (Johnston).

Bowling: Zaheer 9-1-30-3 (w1), Patel 4.5-0-25-1 (w1), Pathan 7-1-32-0, Harbhajan 9-1-29-0 (w1), Chawla 8-0-56-0 (nb6, w3), Yuvraj 10-0-31-5 (w2).

India:

V. Sehwag c and b Johnston 5

S. Tendulkar lbw b Dockrell 38

G. Gambhir c Cusack b Johnston 10

V. Kohli run out 34

Y. Singh not out 50

MS Dhoni lbw b Dockrell 34

Y. Pathan not out 30

Extras (lb4, w5) 9

Total (for five wickets; 46 overs) 210

Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Sehwag), 2-24 (Gambhir), 3-87 (Tendulkar), 4-100 (Kohli), 5-167 (Dhoni).

Bowling: Rankin 10-1-34-0 (w2), Johnston 5-1-16-2 (w1), Dockrell 10-0-49-2, Mooney 2-0-18-0, Stirling 10-0-45-0 (w2), White 5-0-23-0, Kevin O’Brien 1-0-3-0, Cusack 3-0-18-0.

Result: India win by five wickets

Toss: India

Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZL) and Rod Tucker (AUS)

TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA)

Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (SRI)