Yuvraj Singh credits self-belief for Cuttack cracker against England

Yuvraj and MS Dhoni shared in a magnificent stand of 256 runs for the fourth wicket to help the hosts post a challenging 381 after being asked to bat first and then reduced to 25/3 by the fifth over. England rode on a brilliant century by Eoin Morgan, and cracking fifties by opener Jason Roy (82), Joe Root (54) and Moeen Ali (55), but fell short by 15 runs.

“I don’t think about who’s reacting to what, nor do I read newspapers, I don’t watch TV either. I try to focus on my game and prove a point to myself that I’m still good enough for international cricket. So I guess I just did that today; 150 is a huge score in one-day cricket. It’s my highest and taken a long time to get there but I’m very happy it happened today. Hopefully, in the coming time, I can contribute more consistently.”

“Both of us are the most experienced players in the team. Mahi realised that I was getting boundaries. He was just there rotating the strike and our first target was to make a 50-run partnership. After that, we wanted to take our partnership further to 100 runs. I think once that happened we were both set.

“We have been batting together since he started his career. Obviously, I started much earlier. Mahi and me have played a lot of games for India. The camaraderie is always there. I think we have a lot of understanding when we bat together. Our running between the wickets is always good. I hope it works in the future as well.”

“Self-confidence is always there when you have the backing of the team and captain. I think Virat has shown a lot of trust in me and it was very important for me that people in the dressing room trust me. I’ve been batting well in the domestic season. And I’ve been hitting the ball really well. I really wanted to make it big on my day.”