Chennai: That Yuvraj Singh was a flamboyant batsman who can also take the bowlers to the cleaners is well known.
Throughout his career, the southpaw has produced many memorable knocks and had been India’s batting mainstay, especially in the limited overs format. However, it is also his left arm spin and fielding prowess that made him a complete cricketer.
He has produced several top-class performances with the ball in international cricket and IPL and News Today takes a look at some of those.
Only five-wicket haul
During the 2011 World Cup, India went in with three spinners in the squad but Ravichandran and Ashwin and Piyush Chawla didn’t get many games and Yuvraj Singh chipped in with his bowling and worked in tandem with Harbhajan for most of the games. While he went on to pick 15 wickets in the tournament, his best performance came against Ireland where he registered his first and the only five wicket haul.
Four wickets for six runs
Yuvraj’s most economical performance came in the 2003 World Cup against Namibia, where he picked up a four-wicket haul. Batting first riding on Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly’s century India scored a mammoth 311. Chasing the huge target, Namibia were reeling at 96 for 6 when Yuvraj came into bowl and he cleaned up the lower order by dismissing the last four batsmen. He also bowled two maidens. Namibia were all out for 130. Yuvraj’s figures read 4.3 – 2 – 6 – 4.
Hat-tricks in IPL
Yuvraj is also one among those who has managed to take two hat-tricks in a single season of IPL in 2019. Playing for Kings XI Punjab, the skipper registered his first hat-trick against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Yuvraj removed Robin Uthappa and Jacques Kallis in successive balls before coming back to dismiss Mark Boucher off the first ball of his next over to complete the hat-trick. Yuvraj also scored a half-century later but KXIP lost the contest. The second one however came in a winning cause against Deccan Chargers.
Defending just 135, Yuvraj scalped the wickets of Hershelle Gibbs in the last ball if his over. He then dismissed Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao in his next over to complete the hat-trick which also triggered a middle-order collapse that helped KXIP clinch a thriller by one run.