Yuvraj leads India to 5-wicket win over Irish

BANGALORE, India (AP):

Yuvraj Singh became the first player in World Cup history to take five wickets and hit a half century as India beat Ireland by five wickets in a World Cup Group B match yesterday.

Yuvraj finished with a haul of 5-31 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium as Ireland were bowled out for 207 in 47.5 overs. He then made 50 not out as India replied with 210-5 in 46 overs.

Captain William Porterfield top-scored for Ireland with a cautious 75 in 104 balls.

This was the second win in three matches for India, who beat Bangladesh by 87 runs and were involved in a high-scoring tie with England. India now lead the group with the same number of points as England.

For Ireland, it was the second defeat in three matches. They lost to Bangladesh by 27 runs before pulling off a shock three-wicket win over England.

Yuvraj took his first five-wicket haul in one-day internationals.

The left-arm spinner ripped through the middle-order as Ireland were left struggling to meet expectations after their victory over England at the same stadium. Yuvraj's wickets included Porterfield and Kevin O'Brien, who blazed the fastest hundred ever in the World Cup against England.

113-run stand

Porterfield was involved in a 113-run stand for the third wicket with Niall O'Brien (46) but the Ireland batting line-up could not build significantly on that partnership.

Porterfield, who had a reprieve off Zaheer Khan before he had scored a run, struck six fours and a 'free hit' six toward square-leg off Piyush Chawla before he was caught by Harbhajan Singh in the covers off Yuvraj.

Niall O'Brien's run-out dismissal triggered a collapse as Yuvraj took charge with a controlled spell of slow bowling.

Niall O'Brien, who completed 1,000 runs in one-day internationals during yesterday's innings, was short of his ground following a throw from Virat Kohli at cover.

Doing well

Ireland were doing well at 122-2 in the 27th over at that point, but lost their last eight wickets for only 85 runs.

"The run-out by Virat was the changing point,'' said Yuvraj, who was Man of the Match. "I only tried to bowl slow from then on and the pressure slowly built on them.''

Earlier, Ireland lost two wickets to pace bowler Khan after being sent in to bat and was reduced to 9-2 in the third over.

The Indian reply did not start fluently either as pace bowler Trent Johnston struck twice before falling on his follow-through and going off the field with an injury.