The Yuvraj-Raina affair - 2011 returns in 2016, World T20 beckons

The stage may be incomparable - the one from five years ago was a World Cup quarter-final and the other two days back a harmless T20 international. But the success on both occasions paved way for history - the World Cup in 2011 and a historic whitewash in 2016.

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Incidentally, the credits rolling at the end of the script had striking similarities. India chased on both occasions, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina played the lead roles and Australia suffered.

Until 2011, Australia were on a roll in World Cups having won the last three editions in 1999, 2003 and 2007. It was India who took their wheels off in the 2011 quarter-final.

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And until 2016, Australia had never lost all matches of a home series across formats. It was India, again, who managed to inflict that unique first on the Aussies.

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In both of those historic wins, the pair of Yuvraj and Raina made the difference and remained together until the winning runs were scored. The only difference was that if Yuvraj played the lead role in 2011 with Raina in support, it was the other way round in Sydney on Sunday. So it was only justified that Raina hit the winning boundary in 2016, while Yuvraj did it in 2011.

What this similarity five years apart also suggests is that perhaps Raina and Yuvraj are still India's match-winners of choice in crunch situations. And with Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan firming up as a formidable top order, Indian batting looks sorted for limited-overs cricket.

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The coolness Raina displayed is something India missed in the ODI series where they just about managed to avoid a whitewash by winning the final game after losing the first four. Perhaps it was those crucial 15-20 runs a batsman like Raina could have provided that India missed in the death overs. But then, a hindsight always appears nice.

Yuvraj, returning to international action after two years, too is a man for the moment. And that can be said at the risk of being reminded about the 2014 World Twenty20 final against Sri Lanka, where he failed miserably.

But that six of his in the final over at Sydney showed you can never count Yuvi out. Just when a few had started trolling him on social media, a whack over mid-wicket made India favourites to nail a nervous chase. That's the magic of Yuvraj.

If Raina has an icy cool head on his shoulder, try ticking off Yuvraj and you will hit the 'Broad'way. Perhaps, Andrew Flintoff knows that the best.

And MS Dhoni can rely on Yuvi and Raina in more than once sense, as both provide useful bowling options - the former left-arm spin and the latter off-breaks. That fits Dhoni's 'choke slam' perfectly - especially in T20 cricket.

That's going to be the flavour of the season with the T20 Asia Cup, ICC World Twenty20 and the IPL only things on India's roster until May in Bangladesh and at home.

And with former captains like Sunil Gavaskar advocating for almost the similar squad for World Twenty20, there could be more stories in the offing from the Yuvraj-Raina affair.