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Rediff.com  » Cricket » Turning point: Yuvraj's crawl!

Turning point: Yuvraj's crawl!

Last updated on: April 06, 2014 23:07 IST
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Yuvraj Singh's painstaking 21-ball 11 allowed Sri Lanka to regain the momentum and take home the ICC World T20 title.

He was instrumental in winning Team India the inaugural World T20 title.

Yuvraj SinghHe was the player-of-the-series even as Team India won the the ICC World Cup in 2011 and ended 28 years of wait for that crown.

However, Yuvraj Singh's legacy just won't be about those two titles.

- Scorecard

It will be as much about his role, rather the lack of it, in India's dismal surrender to Sri Lanka in the final of the World T20 in Bangladesh on Sunday.

Sri Lanka won their maiden World Twenty20 title following a six-wicket victory at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

Having come in to bat in the 11th over, with Team India comfortably-placed at 64 for 2, and Virat Kohli (77) going great guns, Yuvi was guilty not only of struggling to score but also not giving his partner the strike.

- Photos from the final

The 32-year-old faced 21 balls and scored just 11. The innings was without any boundary.

His ordeal was over off the first ball of the penultimate over, when he hit a Nuwan Kulasekara delivery to Thisara Perera in the deep.

However, by then the damage had been done. India were restricted to just 130.

Yuvraj allowed Sri Lanka to regain lost momentum, and left Kohli disappointed at the other end at the same time.

Kumar Sangakkara then hit a vital 52 not out in his last Twenty20 international outing to help Sri Lanka chase down the 131-run victory target with 13 balls to spare and deny India, the reigning 50-over World Cup and Champions Trophy winners, a record limited over treble.

Sri Lanka finally broke their jinx of losing the finals of global events, having gone down in the decider of the 50-over World Cup in 2007 and 2011 and T20 World Cup in 2009 and 2012.

Sunday's final was also a repeat of the 2011 50-over World Cup final which India won in Mumbai.

Image: Nuwan Kulasekara of Sri Lanka celebrates after dismissing Yuvraj Singh (right) during the final of the ICC World Twenty20 at Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium in Dhaka

Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

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