‘England Wrap Up One Day Series with Comprehensive Victory’
England beat India by Seven Wickets – 8th September
England crusied to victory in the 7th ODI at Lords with a crushing seven wicket victory against a lacklustre India side at the Lords. The outstanding victory gave England the deciding win in the dramatic series which had been evenly poised at three games all following India’s remarkable two ball victory at the Oval.
India won the toss and chose to bat but soon found themselves in trouble against England’s rampant seam attack boosted by the return of Andrew Flintoff. The talismanic Lancastrian took three wickets as did Dimitri Mascherenhas with James Anderson also pitching in with a vital 2-28. England began by making hard work of the 187 total losing Luke Wright and Matt Prior for ducks but Ian Bell stedied the ship before he was run out during a mix up with Pieterson. Captain Collingwood came to the crease and helped England’s top batter secure the victory inside thirty seven over’s before picking up the NatWest Trophy and setting England up perfectly for their trip to the ICC 20-20 World Cup in South Africa.
The first one day series victory for England in three years wrapped up an up and down summer and brought to an end an extremely entertaining contest between two very positive teams. Having both stuttered during the recent World Cup the performances of both squads will have been of great benefit to both coaches, particularly Peter Moores who has been enlisted in helping England improve their one day ranking.
After choosing to bat India got themselves off to a shaky start. Tendulkar and Ganguly were peppered early by the bowling of Flintoff and Anderson and neither started in paticularily comfortable fashion. Ganguly was caught by Flintoff in the slips with the score at 26 and although Gambhir looked positive when coming in to partner his captain he was soon dismissed for twelve off the bowling of Anderson and when Dravid went after only moving the score on by one run, at 53 for 3 India looked in real trouble.
Ganguly began to attack England’s bowlers in a bid to get his side back in the match but despite hitting Flintoff for two morale boosting fours in one over he was soon dismissed in controversial circumstances. When caught behind by Prior the umpire raised his finger but on closer inspections replays showed that the noise made at the time of the ball passing the bat was in fact connection with the pad.
With two new men at the crease England knew that they needed to continue piling the pressure on and although Yuvraj and the Oval hero Uthappa started a decent partnership both were caught off the bowling of Mascherenhas as things started to fall apart for the tourists sitting at 119-6 and soon England began to capitalise on the confidence brought to them by the sudden collapse in India’s batting. Although he was unable to take a wicket, Monty Panesar began to found some turn in the pitch and soon poor running between the stumps under the pressure of needing runs saw Powar and Chawla removed by run outs.
India began to put up a bit of a fight when Dhoni came in as he first cut Monty for four before smashing Anderson for six in impressive fashion. With tail enders falling around him however he needed to keep strike and was therefore restricted to boundaries or singles off the last ball of the over, a tactic which was never going to help India bat through their fifty over’s. The big hitter was dismissed just three over’s from the end however after an excellent catch from Anderson which gave England the opportunity to close out both the game and the series in simple fashion.
As ever with England they made tough work of the opening exchanges, Prior and Wright both survived lbw calls before the youngster was forced into a bad shot hooking the ball in the air for a simple catch to give India a glimour of hope. With the score at 10-1 Prior was only able to add one more run before he was caught behind off the bowling of RP Singh, England seemed in real danger of messing up an easy opportunity afforded to them but they soon began to steady when the in form Ian Bell came into the action along side Kevin Pietersen.
In typical fashion both showed off some big hits, Pieterson hitting a couple of fours off the bowling of Singh to take England close to their target of 188 but a mix up broke up the promising partnership when Bell was run out due to some bad calling from his partner at the crease. Teetering on the brink of collapse Collingwood came into the action and immediately steadied the ship. Although he struggled reading the spin of Chawla on several occasions he eased Powar through extra cover twice before a swivel pull earned him a six off the bowling of Singh.
Pieterson, who also struggled with the turn of the new ball, continued to hit runs in explosive fashion and after hitting a one bounce four to put England within touching distance after easing past his fifty he smashed a six off Powar in the 36th over to win the game for England and clinch the dramatic series in spectacule fashion.
Scorecard
India won the toss and decided to bat
India Innings
187 all out (47.3 Overs)
England Innings
188 for 3 (36.2 Overs)
India Best Performances (Batting)
Tendulkar 30
Yuvraj 28
Dhoni 50
India Best Performance (Bowling)
RP Singh 2-40
Ganguly 0-13
England Best Performance (Batting)
Bell 36
Pietersen 71*
Collingwood 64*
England Best Performances (Bowling)
Anderson 2-28
Flintoff 3-45
Mascharenhas 3-23
England crusied to victory in the 7th ODI at Lords with a crushing seven wicket victory against a lacklustre India side at the Lords. The outstanding victory gave England the deciding win in the dramatic series which had been evenly poised at three games all following India’s remarkable two ball victory at the Oval.
India won the toss and chose to bat but soon found themselves in trouble against England’s rampant seam attack boosted by the return of Andrew Flintoff. The talismanic Lancastrian took three wickets as did Dimitri Mascherenhas with James Anderson also pitching in with a vital 2-28. England began by making hard work of the 187 total losing Luke Wright and Matt Prior for ducks but Ian Bell stedied the ship before he was run out during a mix up with Pieterson. Captain Collingwood came to the crease and helped England’s top batter secure the victory inside thirty seven over’s before picking up the NatWest Trophy and setting England up perfectly for their trip to the ICC 20-20 World Cup in South Africa.
The first one day series victory for England in three years wrapped up an up and down summer and brought to an end an extremely entertaining contest between two very positive teams. Having both stuttered during the recent World Cup the performances of both squads will have been of great benefit to both coaches, particularly Peter Moores who has been enlisted in helping England improve their one day ranking.
After choosing to bat India got themselves off to a shaky start. Tendulkar and Ganguly were peppered early by the bowling of Flintoff and Anderson and neither started in paticularily comfortable fashion. Ganguly was caught by Flintoff in the slips with the score at 26 and although Gambhir looked positive when coming in to partner his captain he was soon dismissed for twelve off the bowling of Anderson and when Dravid went after only moving the score on by one run, at 53 for 3 India looked in real trouble.
Ganguly began to attack England’s bowlers in a bid to get his side back in the match but despite hitting Flintoff for two morale boosting fours in one over he was soon dismissed in controversial circumstances. When caught behind by Prior the umpire raised his finger but on closer inspections replays showed that the noise made at the time of the ball passing the bat was in fact connection with the pad.
With two new men at the crease England knew that they needed to continue piling the pressure on and although Yuvraj and the Oval hero Uthappa started a decent partnership both were caught off the bowling of Mascherenhas as things started to fall apart for the tourists sitting at 119-6 and soon England began to capitalise on the confidence brought to them by the sudden collapse in India’s batting. Although he was unable to take a wicket, Monty Panesar began to found some turn in the pitch and soon poor running between the stumps under the pressure of needing runs saw Powar and Chawla removed by run outs.
India began to put up a bit of a fight when Dhoni came in as he first cut Monty for four before smashing Anderson for six in impressive fashion. With tail enders falling around him however he needed to keep strike and was therefore restricted to boundaries or singles off the last ball of the over, a tactic which was never going to help India bat through their fifty over’s. The big hitter was dismissed just three over’s from the end however after an excellent catch from Anderson which gave England the opportunity to close out both the game and the series in simple fashion.
As ever with England they made tough work of the opening exchanges, Prior and Wright both survived lbw calls before the youngster was forced into a bad shot hooking the ball in the air for a simple catch to give India a glimour of hope. With the score at 10-1 Prior was only able to add one more run before he was caught behind off the bowling of RP Singh, England seemed in real danger of messing up an easy opportunity afforded to them but they soon began to steady when the in form Ian Bell came into the action along side Kevin Pietersen.
In typical fashion both showed off some big hits, Pieterson hitting a couple of fours off the bowling of Singh to take England close to their target of 188 but a mix up broke up the promising partnership when Bell was run out due to some bad calling from his partner at the crease. Teetering on the brink of collapse Collingwood came into the action and immediately steadied the ship. Although he struggled reading the spin of Chawla on several occasions he eased Powar through extra cover twice before a swivel pull earned him a six off the bowling of Singh.
Pieterson, who also struggled with the turn of the new ball, continued to hit runs in explosive fashion and after hitting a one bounce four to put England within touching distance after easing past his fifty he smashed a six off Powar in the 36th over to win the game for England and clinch the dramatic series in spectacule fashion.
Scorecard
India won the toss and decided to bat
India Innings
187 all out (47.3 Overs)
England Innings
188 for 3 (36.2 Overs)
India Best Performances (Batting)
Tendulkar 30
Yuvraj 28
Dhoni 50
India Best Performance (Bowling)
RP Singh 2-40
Ganguly 0-13
England Best Performance (Batting)
Bell 36
Pietersen 71*
Collingwood 64*
England Best Performances (Bowling)
Anderson 2-28
Flintoff 3-45
Mascharenhas 3-23