There is always something about Yuvraj Singh that makes him the man people love to hate. There are always reservations about writing a Mount Everest of his deeds only to find that the mountain has perished and all that remains is a rubble. Just when Vengsarkar agrees, the mountains soars above the rest again.
The foundation had been laid. But it was for team India to capitalize on the belligerency of their openers. The England team was being driven into the ground. But somehow needed to keep them there. But if the former chairman of selectors’ words were anything to go by, the man at the crease was not the man for team India.
Dilip Vengsarkar stated that Yuvraj Singh was a man of immense talent but one that did not value it enough by getting distracted too often and never quite concentrating to convert his talent to greater potency. Yuvraj Singh had perhaps taken those words to heart.
The manner in which Yuvraj Singh batted, one had to seek the motivation behind such an innings of anger and yet done as if second nature. Notwithstanding back spasms that hit him early in his innings, and required a waist band and a runner, Yuvraj Singh defied logic. He suddenly had the England team hapless and clueless as he thundered shots off the bat as if training in the nets.
It’s been a year since he scored his last one day international century. He lost his vice captaincy to Virender Sehwag and has now to fight a crowd for a place in the Test scene that he has not really grabbed to make his own. But his ninth one day international century will be remembered for the sheer manner in which he made batting look so facile and yet so majestic. As if royalty of batting spilled off his bat, the shots ran thick and fast, too much for a dulled England side to even control and contain. His unbeaten knock of 138 from just seventy-eight balls that included sixteen fours and six sixes was simply something to be watched to be believed. To be hampered by a bad back and to be able to play the shots that required power and timing was simply outstanding and for a man considered too laidback about his own talent, showed a great deal of determination and perseverance.
Stuart Broad, who said that he remained unaffected after the Yuvraj Singh plunder for six sixes in his one over in South Africa in the inaugural World Twenty20, was in danger on more than one occasion of reliving it. The batting pitch may have been a paradise but it still needed with a fair bit of dash and panache to send the ordinary looking England bowlers to the cleaners.
Not once did Yuvraj look unsure of himself. Not once did he play a false shot. The best he managed even when he pre meditated on a slower delivery was check his hot in time. That England appeared at the mercy of the Indian batting was made to look more so not only by the wayward England bowlers but also, the manner in which Yuvraj Singh nonchalantly lifted the ball and set its sailing over the canvas roofs time and time again.
It would be a blow no less if Yuvraj’s back problems get exaggerated to keep him out of the one day series. But he would have already played an instrumental role in ensuring that the England team, coming on the back of a humiliating loss, would at least be reliving a few nightmares that would have cost them some confidence in the games ahead.
The traffic was definitely jammed in one direction only and only Yuvraj was deciding which way it would go. For the most skeptical of Yuvraj Singh admirers, this will be the innings to remember when the doubting Thomases decide to re visit.
