Bengaluru: India can now breathe in relief after dangerous Kevin O'Brien and in form William Porterfield were sent back by Yuvraj Singh.
O'Brien was caught and bowled after a soft delivery and Yuvi then teamed up with Harbhajan to crack the solid looking Porterfield.
Ireland is now in trouble here at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium as Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh, earlier, struck back to back to take out Niall O'Brien and Andrew White after early blows from Zaheer Khan.
Following loss of two early wickets, Niall O'Brien and William Porterfield were trying to stabilise the Irish boat with a strong partnership. But when the duo was at 113 runs an alert Virat Kohli and MSD brought out a brilliant piece of teamwork and fielding to get rid of Niall on a seemingly calm Harbhajan Singh delivery.
Then came the Yuvi blow. The all rounder invited new-man-in White to flirt with an outside off stump delivery that was turning out and clipped his edge before settling in MSD’s hands.
The cautious Dhoni’s approach of mixing up bowlers is working wonders for India as the generous Irelanders are keen on giving away their wickets.
Earlier, Dhoni elected to field after winning the toss against Ireland. The Ireland made one change from the side, which shocked England by three wickets at the same venue on Wednesday, bringing in Andrew White in place of Gary Wilson.
India retained the team which tied the last match against England.
Co-hosts India have three points and Ireland two after two matches.
Ireland: William Porterfield (capt), Alex Cusack, Niall O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, John Mooney, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Andrew White, Ed Joyce.
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.]