It’s the best birthday I’ve ever had: Yuvraj

Mohali: After leading India to a thrilling win over Sri Lanka in the second and final T20 International with an all-round performance, Yuvraj Singh, who turned 28 today, said that it was his “best birthday” so far.

“This is my best birthday till now. I am very happy the way we played, especially the batsmen,” Yuvraj said after scoring a blistering 60 of 25 balls and taking three crucial wickets

The flamboyant southpaw believed that after being set an imposing target of 207, Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had given a good start to the team.

Yuvraj has not had many special performances on his home ground to cherish. Expressing satisfaction over his stellar knock, he said, “now, I am happy to turn it around today. But frankly I was not expecting to score 60 of 25 balls”.

Yuvraj gave a lot of credit to coach Gary Kirsten, saying the South African is like a “father figure” to the team.

“He is the best coach that I have ever played under. He understands the game and the pressure,” Yuvraj said, adding that he had also made some gestures towards the coach when he was playing well.

Yuvraj admitted that the team will need to raise the bar in the fielding department.

“We are not happy the way we fielded in the last two games. We missed some catches today, otherwise we could have restricted them (the Lankans) to 150-160 runs,” he said.

The birthday boy said after the victory his teammates celebrated in the dressing room by smearing the cake all over his face.

“There was lot of cake on my face. M S (Dhoni) held my hands and the rest of the players kept applying it all over my face and I could not see who all were the culprits. But I will take revenge once I come to know their names,” quipped Yuvraj.

On teammate S Sreesanth testing positive for swine flu, he said, “It was sad that he tested positive. We wish him speedy recovery. We have also been asked to be careful and take precautions.

PTI