Mumbai: One-day specialist Yuvraj Singh on Thursday paid rich compliments to Mohammed Kaif, who put on a century partnership with him to guide the Indian cricket team to the NatWest triangular series win over England at Lord's last Saturday.

"Kaif and I have been playing together for the last five to six years and we gel well, especially while batting in the middle. I know his strong and weak points and what he would be thinking in the middle and the same goes for Kaif as well," the dashing left-hander told reporters

"Even after I got out with 45 runs short of victory, I knew Kaif with some assistance from Harbhajan Singh would give us victory and Harbhajan ended up scoring 15 valuable runs," Yuvraj, who returned home due to a finger injury, said.

"As I have fine understanding with Kaif it was easy for us to convert ones into twos and twos into threes in the initial stages of our innings and then go for the big shots," he said.

Asked about his consistent performance in the series, Yuvraj, said, "I think the stint with the junior India team to South Africa helped both of our games immensely. Even the performance in the domestic circuit has helped me to be more consistent."

To a query about his plans for next year's World Cup, Yuvraj said, "I find the South African pitches to my liking and now the team is settling down very well under Saurav Ganguly's captaincy. We should take on one tournament at a time as there is still time for the World Cup."

Extras:
Injuries delay Eng squad announcement for 1st Test
Thatscricket Special: English Summer