Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh had a hard outing in his first cricket game since retirement. Playing for Toronto Nationals in the opening game of the Global T20 Canada tournament, Yuvraj could only get 14 runs in 27 balls before he was stumped out in Rizwan Cheema’s over. He stepped up on the swinging delivery, got an edge and the keeper dropped it on to the stumps. Yuvraj was still in the crease as per the replays, but the batsman had already walked off the field before the replays were checked as the square leg umpire had raised his finger.

In the match, Vancouver Knights won the toss and elected to field. Yuvraj came on to strike after the dismissal of Callum McLeod for 17, who was dismissed by Saad Bin Zafar. This incident occurred in the 17th over, by the end of which Knights had reached 119/4.

This was his first match since announcing his retirement from international cricket last month. The left-handed batsman was given a special permission by the BCCI to participate in global T20 leagues after he had formally written to the BCCI seeking the board’s permission to play.

“He wrote to the board. I don’t see an issue in him getting the nod to play in overseas leagues now that he has retired from international cricket and IPL,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by PTI.

Apart from Yuvraj, several international stars such as Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Heinrich Klaasen, etc also were included in the playing XI of the two teams.

First Published: Jul 25, 2019 23:33 IST