A Man of the Match-winning all-round performance by Yuvraj Singh ensured that Ireland did not for the second straight game pull off an upset.
Yuvraj Singh approaches the bowling crease with all the ponderous inelegance of that Revital ad.
What he brings, especially on tracks offering some assistance, is a foxy savvy - a wicket to wicket line from close to the stumps coupled with variations in flight, length, point of release, extent of turn and, when he chooses to bang one into the deck, bounce.
That combination set up a five-for, and saved India's blushes in a game where the two regular spinners went wicket-less and Ireland raised visions of compiling a competitive score despite an inspired Zaheer Khan's twin strikes right upfront.
It's not often you get to say this, but it was actually an inspired bit of fielding that got the side back into the game. Coming together at a potentially disastrous 9/2, Niall O'Brien and skipper William Porterfield had, with initial circumspection and, once they figured out how easy singles were against this Indian fielding side, with growing assurance, added 113 for the third wicket off 146 balls.
With 23 overs left and a few fierce hitters in the hut, Ireland could anticipate a 250-or-so score that could have been challenging under lights on a Chinnaswamy Stadium track that had been so assiduously deprived of water and baked in the heat as to turn from a flat batting track to a turner.
If Yuvraj was about variety and guile, the two "regular" Indian spinners were diametrically opposite. Harbhajan had a track that turned and bounced; he had support in the form of two slips; but for the most part he stayed around the wicket to the left handers and speared it in on length, often missing his line and drifting onto the pads, and never looking likely to bag a wicket (World Cup combined analysis: 29-1-128-2).
If Harbhajan could at the least boast of economy, Piyush Chawla didn't even have that fig leaf. He came on in the 18th over and gave away 15, including 5 no balls with an offering where he overstepped, lost his radar, and beat everyone including the fine leg fielder. His first spell was 3-0-24-0; he was brought back in the 24th over and took all of 10 balls to complete the 'over' - his stint today was a nightmare endured with eyes wide open. At first he found bite and turn, but no control of line; he compensated by cutting out the leg breaks and bowling an uninterrupted series of googlies the opposition picked off with ease (World Cup thus far: 25-0-159-2).
Against that backdrop, Yuvraj's performance with the ball deserves all the kudos going, but the role of Zaheer Khan in setting it up merits mention. Having thumped England, Ireland would have come into this game with adrenalin pumping and, who knows, a halfway decent start could have inspired them to send India on a leather hunt.
Has laoreet percipitur ad. Vide interesset in mei, no his legimus verterem. Et nostrum imperdiet appellantur usu, mnesarchum referrentur id vim.
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