It was just not India vs Pakistan day but also the Cancer attack survival day. And the survivor himself proved at Edgbaston that he has all those sparks till left in him.
Those lofted sixes and on drives truly took all cricket fans back to their old days. Back in 2000, a tall and spindly teenager from Punjab with a gift for stunning strokeplay made the cricket world sit up. 17 years back the scenario was no different.
An enthralling knock of 53 off 32 balls which turned to be game changing. Yuvraj, the hero of India’s big win, would dedicate the knock to the fighters.
“My innings on #CancerSurvivorDay is dedicated to all the heroes and survivors. Also my thoughts and prayers to all impacted in #londonattack,” he tweeted.
Even Harbhajan Singh wrote that,
“That said, the man who stole the show with his brilliant hitting was none other than Yuvraj Singh. The kind of innings he played was simply mind-blowing. That is Yuvi for you. When it comes to ICC tournaments, I doubt I can think of any other player that rises to the occasion as frequently and as brilliantly as Yuvraj. Not only did the left-handed veteran take the pressure off Kohli’s shoulders, but he also entertained the crowd with his unique style of batting. Wow, what a knock that was! No wonder, then, that he was adjudged the player of the match.”
Yuvraj is the only Indian cricketer to hit six sixes in an over in a World Cup game – it came against England in T20 2007. He was the player of the tournament in the 2011 World Cup. The days after his finest moments in sports, he was detected with cancer. He underwent three rounds of chemotherapy in the US and then, he was ill spoken for failing in the 2014 T20 World Cup final against Sri Lanka. However, he came back stronger every time and proved his worth.
Harbhajan too confronted that if India keeps on playing like this they would be unstoppable in the tournament and it would be easy for them to defend their title. He too praised the efforts of hitting huge sixes off the young Hardik Pandya.
“Such victories boost the team’s collective confidence. Apart from Sharma, Dhawan, Kohli and Yuvraj, it was great to see Hardik Pandya play that wonderful cameo. His clean-as-a-whistle hits over the fence sucked the life out of Pakistan. It was just fantastic to watch.Simply put, India could not have asked for a better opening fixture. Yes, the opposition was Pakistan and pressure was always going to be a huge factor. But the boys performed very well. In fact, it never seemed that India was under any sort of pressure. That’s the level at which they played today. The boys went out and expressed themselves. It was heartening to see the bowlers complementing the batsmen. To beat Pakistan is a big achievement in itself, and to thrash them by more than 100 runs is just awesome!”
The all-round performance by India gained all praises. Starting from the opening century stand to Yuvraj-Virat partnership and the bowlers keeping on the pace and striking down wickets. Harbhajan said he was confident of India’s win when the team reached 300-mark.
“The moment we crossed the 300-run-mark, I was confident that the scales had tilted in our favour. After all, Pakistan’s batting line-up is way too inexperienced. And I was proved right.”
Yuvraj was playing in England for the first time since 2007. He had been ill when India landed, as he missed the training sessions and two warm-up games. His selection wasn’t automatic, with Karthik on the line. But he had a back of the captain, who often seems in awe of Yuvraj’s sublime strokeplay and believes in his comeback.
Harbhajan Singh, one of his old day’s mate couldn’t stop praising such heroic innings from the man,
“I can’t stop talking about Yuvraj. To smash a 32-ball 53 in a high-pressure game is just classy’. I would also like to congratulate our bowlers. The bowling unit didn’t give Pakistan any chance of fighting their way back into the match. That’s a huge positive. It was the perfect game for India, a 10-on-10 performance. This will surely lift the confidence of the team and help them do better in bigger games over the course of the tournament.”
India next locks horns with Sri Lanka on 8th may at The Oval.