If Sachin Tendulkar provided the early excitement in the ICC KnockOut quarter-final match against Australia on Saturday, the second half of the innings belonged to Yuvraj Singh who hammered out 84 as India reached 266 for nine off their 50 overs.

Playing only his second international Singh took his cue from Tendulkar as he stood up tall and took on the much-vaunted Australian seamers. With Shane Warne and Colin Miller both unavailable because of injury, Australia placed their faith entirely in a fast and medium-paced attack, but just as Tendulkar had launched himself at Glenn McGrath, so Singh demonstrated little respect for Australian reputations.

An upright left-hander who has still to turn 19, Singh galloped to his 50 off 46 deliveries in his first ODI innings – he was not required to go to the crease during his ODI debut against Kenya on Tuesday.

India had been 131 for four at the halfway stage before Singh and his namesake Robin put on 64 in 12 overs for the fifth wicket. Singh was missed on 45 when an edge off McGrath flew straight through Mark Waugh at slip and it seemed a mistake Australia could ill-afford.

Robin Singh fell for 19 before he was bowled off the inside by Ian Harvey and wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya went for 5 when Waugh atoned for his earlier lapse by holding onto to a sharp chance at slip off Brett Lee.

And when Ajit Agarkar top-edged Shane Lee down to fine leg for 3 to reduced India to 222 for seven in the 43rd over, the batting side were in danger of squandering Singh’s splendid efforts by being bowled out inside their full quota of overs.

Australia finally managed to get rid off him in the 47th over when he top-edged an attempted pull off Shane Lee. The bowler gratefully accepted a high return catch and Singh was out for 84 off 80 balls in an innings that included 12 fours.

Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan added 19 for the ninth wicket and Venkatesh Prasad hit Ian Harvey over extra cover for six off the last ball of the innings to ensure that Australia would have to score at 5.32 an over to win.

© CricInfo Ltd.