Yuvraj Singh’s all-round effort helped India defy yet another spirited effort from Ireland, to emerge victors by five wickets in the 22nd game of the ICC World Cup at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
India won the toss and elected to field first. Zaheer Khan bowled Paul Stirling (0) off the third ball of the innings and then removed Ed Joyce (4) to reduce Ireland to 9/2. Skipper William Porterfield and Niall O’Brien then added a record 113 runs for the third wicket, to set the tone for a bigger total. 
Porterfield scored 75 runs off 104 balls, his second World Cup half century. He hit six fours and a six before he became Yuvraj Singh’s first victim. Niall O’Brien was unlucky to get out on 46 runs when he was run out by Virat Kohli. He faced 78 balls and hit three fours.
Kevin O’Brien (9) failed to build on his innings against England and Ireland kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Alex Cusack (24) and Trent Johnston (17) hit a couple of boundaries to take the score past to 207 runs. For India, Yuvraj Singh took 5/31 in his allotted 10 overs while Zaheer Khan picked up 3/30 in his nine overs.
The Indian chase got off to a bizarre start as they lost Virender Sehwag (5) and Gautam Gambhir (10) to Trent Johnston and get reduced to 24/2. Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli then added 63 runs for the third wicket. Tendulkar made just 38 runs off 56 balls with four fours. Kohli made a composed 34 runs from 53 balls with three fours before he was run out with the score on 100.
Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni got together to add 67 runs for the fifth wicket. Dhoni made a 50-ball 34 runs that included two fours. Dhoni’s departure brought Yusuf Pathan to the middle, who started off well with two huge sixes off George Dockrell and added 43 runs with Yuvraj Singh who remained unbeaten on 50 runs. Yuvraj hit three fours in his 75-ball innings. Pathan remained unbeaten on 30 runs that took only 24 balls and included three sixes and two fours. Yuvraj Singh was declared the player of the match for his all-round effort.