Bengaluru: Yuvraj Singh tore down the Ireland team with a five-wicket haul here at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium today. His victims were Andrew White, dangerous Kevin O' Brien, in-form William Porterfield, JF Mooney and Alex Cusack.
Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel also struck heavy on the Irish tail enders to bundle out the visitors for a mere 207 runs in 47.5 overs.
The Yuvi saga kickstarted with the Andrew White blow. He invited White to flirt with an outside off stump delivery that was turning away and clipped his edge before settling in MSD’s hands, which brought the dangerous Kevin O’Brien out to the Bengaluru strip.
Dhoni had earlier said that he would try and run out the firebrand O’Brien before he turns on his pyrotechnics. But he didn’t have to sweat too much as Yuvi had other plans for the batsman. He caught and bowled O'Brien - soft and sweet.
Yuvi then teamed up with Indian spin wizard Harbhajan Singh to send packing the in-form William Porterfield who was looking strong at 75 runs with 6 fours and 1 six.
Next was John Mooney’s turn. Yuvi trapped him in front of the stumps to claim his fourth wicket and the crowd was roaring indeed.
Yuvi came back to attack and this time it was Alex Cusack who was the victim. Dhoni called for a review of a straight one from Yuvi which struck Cusack full on the pads. There was no chance of this one coming back to the ground umpire as MSD seems to have done proper homework on UDRS after last Sunday’s blockbuster against England.
Earlier, Dhoni elected to field after winning the toss against Ireland. The Ireland made one change from the side, which shocked England by three wickets at the same venue on Wednesday, bringing in Andrew White in place of Gary Wilson.
India retained the team which tied the last match against England.
Co-hosts India have three points and Ireland two after two matches.
Ireland: William Porterfield (capt), Alex Cusack, Niall O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, John Mooney, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Andrew White, Ed Joyce.
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.