Good, but could've done better: Yuvi

Left-hander rubbishes claims of poor form but adds he should’ve carried on and scored a ton

ADELAIDE: “Relief? What’s that?” thundered Yuvraj Singh. “There was never a question mark over my place in the team. The last series I had four fifties in five games. I had two bad games and in the third game I got just one over to bat. After two games you are putting a question mark over me? I think you are asking me a wrong question.”

When in flow, it’s difficult to stop Yuvraj, more so on the field. Answering his critics, the Indian vice-captain came out with a blistering knock of 76 that fired India to an important victory in the tri-series. Then he came out with a few stinging words for the media: “I never had any support from the press.”

Batting at No 5, Yuvraj played his shots with so much power, disdain and control that he never gave a hint he was scoring his first half-century after more than 50 days. It was a typical Yuvraj knock, laced with cuts, pulls, drives and flicks. What’s more, he not only contributed 76 at a crucial juncture, but also brought down the asking rate. If India managed a win despite a flurry of wickets in the end, it was because of his 10 fours and one six with a strike rate of 108. “I am not satisfied with my knock today. I should have scored a century,” Yuvraj added.

A century would have been a logical culmination of such a knock which had power, precision and placement. He was regal in his pulls and effortless in finding gaps. When he was batting, the field looked as big as the Simpson Desert that is close to Adelaide. Mahela Jayawardene found it difficult to set his field.

“I know my capabalities. And I know if I keep working towards my game it’s going to come out. We all have bad times,” he went on, looking as aggressive at the post-match media conference as he was on the field.

Yuvraj, however, thanked skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his full throttle backing. “When you are playing for the team it’s very important that you support each other.” He was also all praise for the skipper’s knock. “If Dhoni wasn’t there till the end we would have lost the game. The amount of effort I’ve put in today, Dhoni has put in more.”

It didn’t stop there. “Look at how many games he has batted like that. Every time he has been consistent. I wasn’t that good when I came in, batting lower down the order. It’s tremendous how he goes in and is so consistent. The young boys should take an inspiration from him on how to bat in pressure situations.”

An otherwise angry Yuvraj also praised teammates Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar. “I tried to bat the way Gautam batted against Muralitharan. And I tried to get important inputs from Sachin Tendulkar.”

He also added that he was not thinking about the final or IPL yet. “Our target is the next game (in Sydney).”