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Amid its shoddy bowling and fielding, India has seen a star bail the team out in the World Cup match against Ireland. Yuvraj Singh was declared Man of the Match for his all-round role: taking five wickets and scoring half a century.

Besides Yuvraj and Zaheer Khan, the other bowlers failed to make much of an impression, especially spinners Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh, who could not take advantage of the turn the pitch offered.

India must tighten its bowling as well as fielding, especially against South Africa, which falls in the same group, and Pakistan and Australia of group A which India could face from the quarter finals.

Team India can almost assure itself a place in the quarter finals. But not performing well in the group could see it facing Pakistan in the quarters itself. This is something fans of both countries wouldn’t want.

During the match against Ireland, the vistors were dismissed for only 207, thanks to Yuvraj, who tore apart the Irish batting line up despite not being a regular bowler.

Though Zaheer Khan managed to do the damage early with the wicket of Paul Stirling for 0, he did not look menacing even though he managed three wickets. Ireland skipper William Porterfield scored 75 before being caught by Harbhajan of Yuvraj’s bowling.

It was Yuvraj again who had to show direction to the Indian batting. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir fell cheaply and then Sachin Tendulkar (38 runs), Virat Kohli (34 runs) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (34) notched decent scores.

Yuvraj scored 50 runs and was partnered by Yusuf Pathan, who managed a hurricane 30 not out of 23 balls with his big hits to give India a five-wicket victory with a total of 210 for 5 wickets in 46 overs.

With this win, India is at the top of group B and will sail into the quarter finals. If the current group positions are maintained (that is, if Pakistan can also stay at the top of its group), then an India-Pak clash could be postponed till at least the semi finals or even the finals.

Pakistan is looking menacing and India will have to spin out some magic if it wants to overpower its arch rival.

Yuvraj will have to play a similar role with Pakistan: that of an all-rounder but he must keep in mind that it is not Ireland this time and even India’s bowlers have to ball tight to restrict Pakistan from scoring big for India to get a chance to trump its neighbour.