Yuvraj Singh

When a young man makes his debut in international cricket and does not get to bat in his first outing you can be sure he'll be raring to go in his next match. Yuvraj Singh did not get to bat against Kenya in India's first match in the International Cricket Council KnockOut Tournament. However, he made up for that sufficiently when he was let loose against the world champions Australia.

Coming in to bat in the crucial match, Yuvraj Singh was up against the charged up pace of Glen McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie. Yuvraj Singh walked out to the crease with India's main batsmen back in the pavilion. Displaying no signs of nervousness, Yuvraj cracked the very second ball he faced to the boundary. In the company of the experienced Robin Singh, Yuvraj took the attack to the opposition. Playing the cover drive with elan, Yuvraj Singh missed no opportunity to attack. When the ball was on his pads, he tucked it away to the on side with fierce power.

Before the Aussies could gather their wits, Yuvraj Singh slammed eight fours in his 47 ball half century, the fastest of the tournament so far. Even after he lost the company of Robin Singh and stumper Vijay Dahiya, the lad from Chandigarh did not slow down. Getting his act together, he understood the value of capitalising on a start and worked his way on. When he was 84 off just 80 balls, Yuvraj Singh skied a ball in an attempt to accelerate the scoring. The fact that the next highest score in the innings was 38 from Sachin Tendulkar speaks volumes for the quality of Yuvraj Singh's innings.

On the field Yuvraj Singh refused to stay out of the action. Although his innings had helped India to a useful score of 265, there was still more work to be done.

The Australians began well, and the fact that they had a long batting line up caused some worry in the Indian camp. Ian Harvey sent out as a pinch hitter was going along well on 24 before Yuvraj Singh put an end to it all. Diving headlong in the cover region, Yuvraj plucked the ball out of the air stunning the Aussies into silence. His catch turned the tide in the favour of the Indians. His youth and vigour inspired the Indians to new heights on the field. Every man was on his toes. As if that wasn't enough, Yuvraj pulled off another stunner. This time a direct hit from mid off that got rid of the ever so dangerous Michael Bevan which was the turning point of the match.

Fortunately for the Australians, Sourav Ganguly did not give Yuvraj Singh a go with the ball. The kind of form he was in, Yuvraj would probably have snared a wicket or two and increased the margin of victory to more than the eventual 20 runs!