Return of the Singh...........

Return of the Singh

There were a couple of things that happened at the start of 34th over of India's innings that signalled the start of the final assault. The batting side had opted for the powerplays just as the umpires handed a cleaner, harder ball to England's bowlers.

But Yuvraj Singh, batting with a brace around his hips, his face screwed up in agony due to a back strain suffered a couple of overs back, didn't look like a man who could lead the carnage. Batting on 30 off 33 balls, and clearly in pain, even experts in the commentary box felt the left-hander should head back to the dressing room and leave the finishing touches to the big-hitters - Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Yusuf Pathan - who were itching to get a piece of the action.

What followed was probably Yuvraj's most destructive innings ever - the kind that made the quality of bowling, field placements, pitch conditions or match situation seem irrelevant.

Anything outside the off-stump went flying over covers or scorched past point. Balls pitched on the legs usually plied two routes - those short of a length were flicked to the square leg fence, anything near a good length raced to, or over, mid-on.

In a nutshell, Yuvraj's 78-ball 138 with 16 fours and six sixes (not in one over, Stuart Broad would like to point out) was the kind of knock that could give the English bowlers nightmares over the duration of this series.

England captain Kevin Pietersen seemed as helpless at the post-match press conference as he did during the day. "Yuvraj played a fantastic innings. He was hitting the ball in a manner that most can't. At the end of the day, it's hard to lose, but there's little you can do if a batsman like Yuvraj plays an innings like he did," he said.

He might have been in pain on Tuesday, but the batsman's suffered through most of the year. His dismal run away in Australia and at home against South Africa meant he wasn't picked for the Tests in Sri Lanka. He got a big hundred in the warm-up game ahead of the one-dayers, but Ajantha Mendis gave him a torrid time once the serious business got underway.

He was left out of the Rest of India squad for the Irani Cup tie and it was back to the grind as he led the Board President XI against the visiting Aussies. Yuvraj did score a ton in that tour game, but the limelight was hogged by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Yuvraj himself called it his best innings to date. "It was important for me to find some form. I was not here to prove anything to anybody, but I did want to prove to myself that I belong in this league," he said.