INDORE: Yuvraj Singh clobbered his second successive century and then scalped four key wickets as India maintained their stranglehold over England by winning the second ODI on Monday by 54 runs.
The Indians rode on Yuvraj's scintillating 118 to post a competitive 292 for nine and then bundled out England for 238 in 47 overs to take a decisive 2-0 lead in the seven-match series.
The 26-year-old Yuvraj, who recovered from a back injury just in time to be drafted into the team, came out with a stunning all-round display to play the pivotal role in India's victory on a rather slow track at the Maharani Usharaje Trust ground.
Yuvraj, who had blasted an unbeaten 138 off just 78 balls in the first One-dayer in Rajkot to mark his return to form, not only notched up his tenth century but also helped the hosts recover from an early slump which saw them tottering at 29 for three at one stage.
He then proved his ability as a left-arm spinner by returning dream figures of 10-0-28-4 which included the prized scalps of Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and Owais Shah.The Punjab swashbuckler stitched 134 runs for the fourth wicket with in-form Gautam Gambhir (70) while the Yousuf Pathan provided the late sparks to the innings with a savage unbeaten 50 off just 29 balls.
The England innings never really got the momentum to overhaul India's target with none of the batsmen really getting a big knock to keep them in the hunt. Owais Shah (58), Andrew Flintoff (43), Matt Prior (38) and Kevin Pietersen (33) got the starts but could not hang around long enough. The two teams will now travel to Kanpur for the third game to be played at the Green Park stadium on Thursday.
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