Ind vs Ire : India defeat Ireland by 5 wickets
Bangalore : After a nail biting tie match against England, India thumped Ireland by 5 wickets in the same venue in their World Cup Group B encounter on Sunday to ensure a better position in the points table.
Chasing the Irish total of 207 runs, India reached the winning score of 210 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in just 46 overs.
After taking five wickets with the ball, Yuvraj Singh batted brilliantly to remain the top scorer of the Indian innings with his unbeaten 50 runs.
However, India had the worst possible start to the match as they lost the wicket of Sehwag very early in the game.
Sehwag (5) was caught and bowled by Johnston.
Putting Indian batsmen under pressure, Johnston gave another blow to the ‘Men in Blue’ as he dismissed Gautam Gambhir at his personal score of 10 runs, as the scoreboard showed 24 for the loss of 2 wickets.
Sachin Tendulkar (38) and Virat Kohli (34) dragged the Indian innings forward till they got dismissed after a third wicket partnership of 63 runs.
Yuvraj (50*) stepped into the field after the Irish dismissed Sachin Tendulkar and was seen in good form with the bat.
He hit 3 boundaries in his innings of 50 runs.
He was given good support by skipper MS Dhoni before he got out at his personal score of 34 runs.
Yuvraj and Pathan (30*) batted sensibly since then ensure India a victory at the end.
The Irish bowler bowled brilliantly to put the top class Indian batting line up under some amount of pressure in the match as they kept on picking crucial wickets at regular intervals.
Earlier, the Irish batsmen scored 207 runs for the loss of all wickets.
Yuvraj Singh remained the pick of the Indian bowlers as he picked up 5 wickets by giving away only 31 runs in his 10 overs.
Zaheer Khan took 3 wickets in the game by giving only 30 runs.
Speaking on his bowling performance, Yuvraj said: “Gives you lots of confidence if you do good with the ball, then field well and end with the bat, it feels great.”
On the other hand, skipper M S Dhoni said that he feels that the Indian bowlers have shown signs of improvement in this match.
“Our bowling is showing signs of improvement,” Dhoni said.
India thus topped the points table in the group with a victory over Ireland which was nonetheless laboured.