da casino： The confidence with which Yuvraj Singh batted on the fourth evening went a long way towards eliminating the slim possibility of an Indian defeat
da esport bet： S Aga22-Dec-2008
The run-flow had slowed to a trickle before Yuvraj injected some momentum © AFP
Yuvraj Singh’s year started ignominiously, with a sleepwalking performanceat the Sydney Cricket Ground. When he was dropped ahead of India’s famousvictory in Perth, no one raised a voice. One of the prodigals of theIndian game had been given his chance, and he had blown it. What adifference 12 months makes, though. With Sourav Ganguly now gone, and havingplayed his part in the most remarkable of run chases in Chennai, Yuvrajdoesn’t need to look over his shoulder, and the confidence with which hebatted on the fourth evening went a long way towards eliminating the slimpossibility of an Indian defeat.Home turf hasn’t meant happy hunting ground for Yuvraj. This is his thirdTest at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium and the 27 he made in thefirst innings was his highest score. When he came to the crease midwaythrough the final session, India were just 231 ahead, and the Englishbowlers had slowed the run flow to a trickle.After his repeated run-ins with Kevin Pietersen, who stood at leg slipwhile Yuvraj took guard, there was also the prospect of a few verbalgooglies being tossed his way. Yuvraj says he looked forward to it.”Sometimes it fires you up, sometimes it backfires,” he said. “When youare chatted to, it makes you stronger, more focused. I really don’t mindthe chat.”I actually look forward to it because I think it brings out the best inme. It backfired in the first innings in Chennai, in the second it made mestronger. It’s healthy competition out there, no bad-mouthing. Both theteams are trying to punch the opposition to win the game, so it’s healthycompetition.”Healthy or not, it spurred Yuvraj into playing some fine strokes. Therun-blockade was eased, and India finished the day in an extremelycomfortable position. “It depends on the weather tomorrow,” Yuvraj saidwhen asked about the prospects of an Indian victory. “There’s adisadvantage there because of the weather, we could lose a couple ofhours. Hopefully, we’ll get the maximum possible overs and we’ll be ableto get some runs and bowl them out.”Given the two stunning chases cricket has seen over the pastweek, there were no thoughts on what constituted a safe target. “On thelast day, any target is difficult to get,” he said. “For us in Chennai,387 was tough to get, and I’m sure we’ll set them a tough target.”Chennai was a huge innings for Yuvraj in more ways than one, though heinsisted that the gremlins of doubt hadn’t been keeping him awake atnight. “I never thought that I didn’t belong to this arena because I havethree Test hundreds,” he said. “It’s all media speculation, or I don’tknow what goes on. I never had a doubt and I just wanted to spend sometime in the middle and I knew the runs will come. If you work hard on yourgame, the runs will come. That’s what happened in the second innings.””I never thought that I didn’t belong to this arena because I have three Test hundreds,” Yuvraj said. “It’s all media speculation … If you work hard on your game, the runs will come”Following Virender Sehwag’s run-out soon after lunch, India appeared to havelost their way for the remainder of the session, but Yuvraj was adamantthat this was no one-trick team. “When Viru starts off and gets apartnership, we get into a very good position early on,” he said. “But ifwe lose a few wickets, we need to get a partnership. Gautam and I have hada good one and it has brought the game towards us.”We’re not depending on any particular person. Sometimes it’s Viru,sometimes it’s Gautam. Rahul has shown what a class player he is. Mahibatted so well in the first innings in Chennai. So it’s not anyoneparticular, it’s the whole team. It’s just that the team is gelling verywell, enjoying each other’s success.”I think with Gary Kirsten and Paddy Upton, the atmosphere in the team isgood. We enjoy what we do. If we’re under pressure, we know we have abunch of guys who can come up with match-winning knocks or spells. Ourbowling has been exceptional. Along with Harbhajan, Zaheer has been thefrontline bowler and Ishant is doing well, so we have a great all-roundbunch of players.”The man who leads came in for more than his fair share of praise. “First,he [Dhoni] is very cool-headed, that’s the best part about him. When hetook up captaincy, nobody knew that he could do a great job. He always hasa Plan B. Like when England were batting, we got a few wickets, andthen KP and Freddie got a few runs and he slowed down the game. The momentwe had two wickets, we pounced on the batsmen. He’s always thinking, he’salways asking for suggestions from everyone.”And what of throwing pies? Pietersen was far from amused when Dhonibrought Yuvraj on for the third over on Sunday morning, and he let hisfeelings be known after the day’s play. “When I got up in the morning, Iread the paper, and I said ‘what does this [pie-chucker] mean?’ So I askeda few people there what it meant, and they said it meant a ‘useless kindof bowler’. It shows KP hates getting out to me. Well, a useless bowlergetting him out many times would be because of useless batting, I’d say!But that’s okay.”He’s a phenomenal player and batted like a champion. He’s got 15 hundredsin 40-odd matches – that’s phenomenal. But he tried to get under my skinin the last game and that brought out the best in me. I tried the same andit brought out the best in him. So it’s good competition in the field. ButI don’t have a habit of washing dirty linen in the open, in public. But Ilike the name, eh?”If he can get a few more runs on Tuesday morning and play his part inanother Indian victory, Yuvraj, who cheekily offered Pietersen somebowling tips, won’t particularly care what the English call him. Whenyou’ve come back from oblivion and the team’s winning, nothing elsematters.