After registering a scintillating win against Kangaroos, Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh apologised to Gautam Gambhir after the duo were involved in a terrible mix-up during the quarter-final clash against Australia on Thursday.

In the 34th over, Gambhir was run out when, standing at the non-striker's end, he ran three-fourth of the way while Yuvraj was watching the ball after guiding it fine.

It was visibly Gambhir's fault but it left him frustrated as it was a crucial juncture of the match.

Asked what did he say to Gambhir after returning to the dressing room, Yuvraj said, "I told Gautam after the run-out, I am not Virender Sehwag, I can't run like that ... Well, maybe it was my fault and I apologised to him."

Yuvraj, however, kept his cool and played a match-winning unbeaten innings of 57 and together with Suresh Raina added 74 runs off 61 balls for the sixth wicket to see India through with 14 balls to spare.

The talented left-hander also scalped two wickets during the Australian innings which helped him to earn his fourth man-of-the-match in the ongoing World Cup.

Asked about his purple-patch, Yuvraj said, "I don't know about hitting any purple patch, but the pressure today was immense, playing Australia, it was something else."

"When Dhoni got out, I knew we still had Raina to come, and thought if we can add 40 odd runs it would be good and we cane take the game till the end. I was just trying to keep the ball down.''

"I had a tough last year, I came back into the team and was hitting the ball well. I always looked to keep the ball grounded and stay till the end and it clicked," he added.

Yuvraj said it was the small partnerships that helped India to overhaul the 261 run target set by Australia to set up a mouth-watering clash with Pakistan in the semifinals on March 30 in his home town, Mohali.

"Looking at 260, I thought it was a good score, Ponting played a good innings, We needed partnership and with Sachin Tendulkar and Gauti Gambhir playing well we had partnership going and in the end Raina took us through," he said.

 

Cricket News inextlive from Cricket News Desk