Yuvraj inspires India to 3-0 lead

India 294 for 6 (Yuvraj 103, Raina 61) beat England 245 (Collingwood 93, Pathan 4-51) by 49 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Yuvraj Singh played an inspired innings of rare quality after Rahul Dravid won an important toss on a sluggish pitch as India posted a mammoth 294 and overwhelmed England by 49 runs to take an impressive 3-0 lead in this seven-match series. A raucous Goa crowd cheered India all the way as a strident batting performance laid the base for a strong win.

When India began to bat it was immediately obvious that this 22-yard strip of real estate was not unlike life one of Goa's beaches - slow and not particularly conducive to getting anywhere in a hurry. The pitch at the Nehru Stadium in Goa has not been used for a single first-class match this season, and till late February the ground had been used for football. In that sense it is understandable - though by no means excusable - that the surface is as it was, slow, crumbling, taking spin, breaking up and deteriorating with every passing hour. Virender Sehwag was hardly amused when the first few deliveries shot under his bat and after having a biff or two was cleaned up by one that came back in a touch. India's decision to leave out Gautam Gambhir worked well as Dravid opened, and he was best equipped to show the way to bat on this pitch.

Dravid knuckled down and realised that protecting his stumps was priority No.1 with the ball being up and down. Only when he had picked the length really early did he reach for the ball outside the off stump, and even then he fetched it and placed it into the gap rather than trying to hit it too hard. Another thing that worked for India was pushing Irfan Pathan up the order. His uncomplicated technique worked well, and a partnership of 78 for the second wicket set things up nicely before Dravid (46) dragged Paul Collingwood back onto his stumps.

Soon England sniffed a chance as Pathan failed to clear the infield and the out-of-form Mohammad Kaif tickled one to the keeper and India wobbled at 131 for 4. What they would not have accounted for was Yuvraj Singh playing as superbly as he did, using his power and free-stroking ability to best effect on a pitch where run-making was desperately difficult. Though he played and missed a few early on, and even inside-edged towards fine-leg as he tried to force the ball through the off side, Yuvraj settled down beautifully to play an innings that would form the backbone of India's effort. His trademark big shots did not suffer even though the ball was barely coming onto the bat. The sweep was struck firmly and placed well, the booming cover-drive was a thing of beauty, the pick-up shot over midwicket was effortless. After laying a solid foundation through a long partnership with Raina, Yuvraj really let rip, taking 22 off the 44th over.

Yuvraj's knock, a rollicking 76-ball 103 that included 10 fours and 3 sixes, made a mockery of the tough batting conditions. Ably assisted by Raina, who shared in a 142-run partnership in making 61 very compact runs of his own, Yuvraj had taken India to a score that would take some getting on a flat deck, forget about a slow crumbler. Mahendra Dhoni had his say in the few balls that he faced and India ended very comfortably placed.

With a big score on the board India only had to bowl sensibly given the conditions to put the pressure firmly on England. Pathan showed that he was the man for the job, his well-disguised slower deliveries proving to be the undoing of the top order. With the ball gripping the surface all Pathan had to do was put the ball in areas where a mistake in timing would create problems and he did just that.

Three slower deliveries accounted for Andrew Strauss, who tickled one to the 'keeper, Ian Blackwell, who was bowled playing and missing early, and Owais Shah, who failed to get to the pitch of the ball and chipped to point. Matt Prior had battled hard for 37 and when he was run out in a mix up with Andrew Flintoff, England were in deep trouble at 48 for 4. Mere trouble gave way to complete disaster soon enough when Flintoff holed out to midwicket off Ramesh Powar. When the halfway mark came England were 100 for 5 and needed to score at 7.8 from the remaining overs to reach 295.

Collingwood threatened to do a Yuvraj, showed he had the stomach for a fight, and battled it out for a belligerent 93 but there was just too much for him to do after the top-order had failed. After he holed out going for a big one England folded for 245 and India closed out the match by 49 runs.

Virender Sehwag b Anderson 15 (27 for 1)
Bowled through the gate by an incoming delivery

Rahul Dravid b Collingwood 46 (105 for 2)
Dragged one on from outside off

Irfan Pathan c Collingwood b Flintoff 36 (130 for 3)
Found point trying to clear the infield

Mohammad Kaif c Jones b Plunkett 0 (131 for 4)
Chased and edged a gentle out-swinger

Yuvraj Singh c Collingwood b Flintoff 103 (273 for 5)
Sliced to cover

Suresh Raina b Flintoff 61 (288 for 6)
Bowled off the pad by a full delivery

Andrew Strauss c Dhoni b Pathan 7 (8 for 1)
Ran a slower one into the keeper's gloves

Ian Blackwell b Pathan 9 (27 for 2)
Played early to a slower ball and was bowled

Owais Shah c Yuvraj b Pathan 7 (47 for 3)
Chipped a slower delivery to point

Matt Prior run out (Patel/Dhoni) 37 (48 for 4)
Left stranded setting off for a single

Andrew Flintoff c Sehwag b Powar 15 (83 for 5)
Holed out to the sweeper on the leg side

Vikram Solanki c Yuvraj b Harbhajan 10 (100 for 6)
Lofted to short midwicket

Geraint Jones c Sehwag b Pathan 32 (205 for 7)
Holed out to the sweeper on the leg side going for maximum

Paul Collingwood c Raina b Harbhajan 93 (223 for 8)
Chipped to deep midwicket

Liam Plunkett b Agarkar 18 (242 for 9)
Cleaned up by a swinging yorker

Sajid Mahmood b Agarkar 8 (245 for 10)
Missed a straight yorker