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Yuvraj leads India to second win

17/11/2008

Yuvraj Singh scored his second consecutive century as India convincingly beat England by 54 runs in Indore to take a 2-0 lead in the seven-match series.

After hitting a superb and unbeaten 138 off 78 balls in the first match in Rajkot, Yuvraj picked apart the England bowlers for the second time in four days as he compiled 118 off 122 balls on what looked to be a difficult batting wicket.

Gautam Gambhir (70) and Yusuf Pathan (50 not out) also contributed solid scores, but the rest of the batting lineup failed badly to give England hope.

However, four wickets from Yuvraj and three from part-time spinner Virender Sehwag put paid to the tourists' challenge as they were bowled out for 238.

The match started well for England as India were reduced to 29-3, with Sehwag (one), Suresh Raina (four) and Rohit Sharma (three) all being dismissed cheaply by Stuart Broad.

But when Yuvraj joined surviving opener Gambhir at the crease the game quickly began to slip away from the tourists.

Some superb shot-making combined with loose bowling from the seamers earned a quick-fire century partnership as the pair put on 134 for the fourth wicket before Gambhir was bowled by Kevin Pietersen's spin.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni added 15 before he was bowled by Paul Collingwood and although the last four wickets fell for less than 70 runs, Pathan continued to play a destructive role for England's chances of victory with a half-century off 29 balls.

The tourists' reply looked in trouble early on as Ian Bell (one) was run out with the score on just six.

But fellow opener Matt Prior and number three Owais Shah gradually rebuilt the innings with some watchful batting.

The downside of this style was that an already-high required run rate began to creep up.

And as Prior (38) and Shah (58) looked to accelerate their scoring, both men got themselves out as Yuvraj's spin began to exert pressure.

Number three batsman Pietersen was joined at the crease by Flintoff and the big-hitting duo began to give England fans some hope when both started to open their shoulders as the score crept beyond 140.

Some exciting cricket followed as the sloggers took full advantage of their batting power play - scoring at 11 runs an over to haul the visitors back into contention.

But when Flintoff (43 off 35 balls) was trapped lbw attempting a sweep off Yuvraj and the skipper (33) followed soon after when he was bowled through the gate by the same man, the score was 184-4 and the writing was on the wall for a second straight defeat.

From this point onwards, England's innings slowly lost momentum. Collingwood scored just two before being caught and bowled by the dangerous Harbhajan Singh and Ravi Bopara (three) followed soon after.

All-rounder Samit Patel (20) provided some resistance alongside useful tail-ender Broad (22) but their efforts were in vain.

Wickets tumbled as the batsmen looked for big shots, which the pitch and the Indian spin did not allow, as England crumbled to their fourth heavy defeat in five limited-overs matches.

Skipper Pietersen will now need to pick up his charges after those losses - in the Stanford Twenty20, the second warm-up match in Mumbai and the first ODI of the series last week - as England look to get their tour of India up and running.