BANGALORE: Yuvraj Singh’s first five-wicket haul of his career helped India bowl out Ireland for a modest 207 in their Group B match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
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.
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