By IANS
Adelaide : Yuvraj Singh Tuesday became the eighth Indian to appear in 200 or more One-Day Internationals (ODIs), joining Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Kapil Dev.
The Punjab left-hander celebrated the occasion with an outstanding innings of 76 off 70 balls to help India beat Sri Lanka by two wickets in the Commonwealth Bank Triangular Series here. It was his second highest score in Australia, next only to his career-best 139 off 122 balls against Australia at Sydney in 2004.
Yuvraj’s 35th half-century is his fifth against Sri Lanka. He has recorded 22 half-centuries overseas and 13 at home.
Irfan Pathan (31 off 41 balls) registered his highest score in Australia, eclipsing his 30 off 41 balls against Australia at Sydney in February, 2004.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan put on 58 runs for the sixth wicket, which is India’s highest for this wicket-position at Adelaide, surpassing the 39 by Yashpal Sharma and Syed Kirmani against New Zealand in 1980-81.
Ishara Amerasinghe produced his best bowling figures, eclipsing his two for 66 against Australia at Sydney Feb 8.
Dhoni posted his 19th half-century – his fourth against Sri Lanka.
As captain, Dhoni is now averaging 51.75. He has scored 621 runs in 18 matches, including five half-centuries at a strike rate of 79.92 as skipper.
Sachin Tendulkar, with his second-ball duck Tuesday, now holds an unwanted Indian record for most ducks (20), outstripping Javagal Srinath’s tally of 19 ducks.