ID :
31457
Fri, 11/21/2008 - 14:32
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/31457
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India take 3-0 lead by beating England via D/L method
Kanpur, Nov 20 (PTI) India overcame a wobbly start and some anxious moments before beating England by 16 runs via Duckworth-Lewis method in a closely-contested third cricket one-dayer to take a comfortable 3-0 lead in the seven-match series here Thursday.
Chasing 241 for a victory, the hosts were less dominating but were conscious of the Duckworth-Lewis requirement as they scored 198 for five in 40 overs before fading light necessitated an early end to the game.
India needed to score 183 for five in 40 overs under the D/L method and were declared the winners when bad light came into play.
For the hosts, Virender Sehwag topscored with 68, while Yuvraj Singh scored a brisk 38 off just 31 balls. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni remained unbeaten on 29 to steer the team to victory in a more keenly contested tussle at the Green Park stadium.
After the early morning haze delayed the start and reduced the tie to a 49-overs-a-side affair, England captain Kevin Pietersen won the toss and had little hesitation in opting to bat first.
India now need to win the next match in Bangalore on Sunday to clinch the series by taking an unassailable 4-0 lead.
A rejigged batting order saw Ravi Bopara (60) walking out
to open with Ian Bell (46) and the openers put on 79 runs
before England lost the plot in the face of some disciplined
bowling by the Indians and folded for 240 in 48.4 overs.
For India, Harbhajan Singh stood out, scalping three for
31, joining the 200 ODI wicket club in the process.
For the home team's in-form and awe-inspiring batting
order, the target of 241 should have been a stroll in the
park. However small the target, they still needed to score
those runs but a jittery start jolted them out of complacency.
A reckless Gautam Gambhir (14) and Suresh Raina (1)
perished in quick succession and for India, reduced to 34 for
two inside 10 overs, the chase for a modest target wasn't a
cakewalk anymore.
Andrew Flintoff banged his fifth delivery short and
Gambhir charged out only to guide it to third man where a
grateful Broad pouched the catch.
Flintoff tormented Suresh Raina (1) as well but it was
Broad who got the left-hander when the batsman, rooted in the
crease, dragged a ball onto his stumps.
Sehwag read the situation well but did not allow it
to bog him down. Boundaries still came thick and fast and
Sehwag enjoyed the fortune of the brave as well when Samit
Patel almost caught him off his own bowling before the ball
popped out of the left-arm spinner's palm.
Sehwag celebrated by clobbering Graeme Swann for a six to
complete his fifty and raised 67 runs with Rohit Sharma (28)
to lend some stability before trouble came in pair and both
the batsmen returned in quick succession.
Rohit once again failed to convert the start and fell to
Swann and then an airborne Paul Collingwood silenced the
choc-a-bloc stadium by pulling off a stunner at point off
Flintoff.
Sehwag left unhappy with himself, having scored 68 off 75
balls with eight fours and a six in it.
England nemesis Yuvraj Singh walked amid thunderous
applauds and joined by captain MS Dhoni and the duo had just
steadied the ship before Flintoff again turned the game on its
head by removing the left-hander.
In deteriorating light, Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan (12 not
out) played smart cricket to keep the team ahead in the
Duckworth-Lewis chart before bad light interrupted match.
Earlier, for the first time in the series, England got
off to a strong, if not spectacular, start with the
Bell-Bopara duo raising 79 runs for the first wicket inside 15
overs.
It was a marked improvement by the visitors, considering
the fact that the opening stand had yielded 12 and six runs
respectively, in the last two matches.
With Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel maintaining a
claustrophobic line, runs were not easy to come by, let
alone boundaries. To their credit, Bopara and Bell did not
panic.
The run rate was nothing to write home about but England
crossed the 50-mark in 11 overs without any loss.
Bell greeted the erratic Ishant Sharma with two
boundaries in the first over, upsetting his rhythm by
repeatedly stepping out of the crease. With Bell on song,
Bopara also chimed in. The Essex player proved the perfect
foil for his partner and helped himself to occasional
boundaries, including a couple of streaky ones.
A change in end and Munaf finally drew the first blood in
the 15th over when Bell perished caught behind, four-run shy
of the half-century.. Bell's 47-ball 46 included eight hits
to the fence.
With the opener laying the perfect foundation for a big
total, England required a big knock from either Pietersen
(13) or Flintoff (26) but both let the side down.
Pietersen hoicked Yuvraj Singh for a massive six to
signal his intention but it was the same unbridled aggression
which did him in when he went for an encore of the shot, this
time against Harbhajan and ended up finding Zaheer at
long-off.
Harbhajan sorted out Paul Collingwood (1) with a doosra
and almost caught Flintoff off his own bowling with the ball
dropped marginally short.
Yuvraj ended Bopara's vigil by luring him out of the
crease and Dhoni had a world of time to whip off the bail.
Bopara hit eight fours en route to his 82-ball 60.
With Flintoff still in the crease, England's hopes of a
big total was very much alive, till Yusuf Pathan trapped him
with his second ball to pre-empt any batting fireworks by the
talismanic all-rounder.
Owais Shah (40) added 36 runs with Samit Patel (29)
before holing out in the deep, giving Harbhajan his 200th ODI
wicket, but that was not enough in the end to reach the
250-mark. PTI
Chasing 241 for a victory, the hosts were less dominating but were conscious of the Duckworth-Lewis requirement as they scored 198 for five in 40 overs before fading light necessitated an early end to the game.
India needed to score 183 for five in 40 overs under the D/L method and were declared the winners when bad light came into play.
For the hosts, Virender Sehwag topscored with 68, while Yuvraj Singh scored a brisk 38 off just 31 balls. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni remained unbeaten on 29 to steer the team to victory in a more keenly contested tussle at the Green Park stadium.
After the early morning haze delayed the start and reduced the tie to a 49-overs-a-side affair, England captain Kevin Pietersen won the toss and had little hesitation in opting to bat first.
India now need to win the next match in Bangalore on Sunday to clinch the series by taking an unassailable 4-0 lead.
A rejigged batting order saw Ravi Bopara (60) walking out
to open with Ian Bell (46) and the openers put on 79 runs
before England lost the plot in the face of some disciplined
bowling by the Indians and folded for 240 in 48.4 overs.
For India, Harbhajan Singh stood out, scalping three for
31, joining the 200 ODI wicket club in the process.
For the home team's in-form and awe-inspiring batting
order, the target of 241 should have been a stroll in the
park. However small the target, they still needed to score
those runs but a jittery start jolted them out of complacency.
A reckless Gautam Gambhir (14) and Suresh Raina (1)
perished in quick succession and for India, reduced to 34 for
two inside 10 overs, the chase for a modest target wasn't a
cakewalk anymore.
Andrew Flintoff banged his fifth delivery short and
Gambhir charged out only to guide it to third man where a
grateful Broad pouched the catch.
Flintoff tormented Suresh Raina (1) as well but it was
Broad who got the left-hander when the batsman, rooted in the
crease, dragged a ball onto his stumps.
Sehwag read the situation well but did not allow it
to bog him down. Boundaries still came thick and fast and
Sehwag enjoyed the fortune of the brave as well when Samit
Patel almost caught him off his own bowling before the ball
popped out of the left-arm spinner's palm.
Sehwag celebrated by clobbering Graeme Swann for a six to
complete his fifty and raised 67 runs with Rohit Sharma (28)
to lend some stability before trouble came in pair and both
the batsmen returned in quick succession.
Rohit once again failed to convert the start and fell to
Swann and then an airborne Paul Collingwood silenced the
choc-a-bloc stadium by pulling off a stunner at point off
Flintoff.
Sehwag left unhappy with himself, having scored 68 off 75
balls with eight fours and a six in it.
England nemesis Yuvraj Singh walked amid thunderous
applauds and joined by captain MS Dhoni and the duo had just
steadied the ship before Flintoff again turned the game on its
head by removing the left-hander.
In deteriorating light, Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan (12 not
out) played smart cricket to keep the team ahead in the
Duckworth-Lewis chart before bad light interrupted match.
Earlier, for the first time in the series, England got
off to a strong, if not spectacular, start with the
Bell-Bopara duo raising 79 runs for the first wicket inside 15
overs.
It was a marked improvement by the visitors, considering
the fact that the opening stand had yielded 12 and six runs
respectively, in the last two matches.
With Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel maintaining a
claustrophobic line, runs were not easy to come by, let
alone boundaries. To their credit, Bopara and Bell did not
panic.
The run rate was nothing to write home about but England
crossed the 50-mark in 11 overs without any loss.
Bell greeted the erratic Ishant Sharma with two
boundaries in the first over, upsetting his rhythm by
repeatedly stepping out of the crease. With Bell on song,
Bopara also chimed in. The Essex player proved the perfect
foil for his partner and helped himself to occasional
boundaries, including a couple of streaky ones.
A change in end and Munaf finally drew the first blood in
the 15th over when Bell perished caught behind, four-run shy
of the half-century.. Bell's 47-ball 46 included eight hits
to the fence.
With the opener laying the perfect foundation for a big
total, England required a big knock from either Pietersen
(13) or Flintoff (26) but both let the side down.
Pietersen hoicked Yuvraj Singh for a massive six to
signal his intention but it was the same unbridled aggression
which did him in when he went for an encore of the shot, this
time against Harbhajan and ended up finding Zaheer at
long-off.
Harbhajan sorted out Paul Collingwood (1) with a doosra
and almost caught Flintoff off his own bowling with the ball
dropped marginally short.
Yuvraj ended Bopara's vigil by luring him out of the
crease and Dhoni had a world of time to whip off the bail.
Bopara hit eight fours en route to his 82-ball 60.
With Flintoff still in the crease, England's hopes of a
big total was very much alive, till Yusuf Pathan trapped him
with his second ball to pre-empt any batting fireworks by the
talismanic all-rounder.
Owais Shah (40) added 36 runs with Samit Patel (29)
before holing out in the deep, giving Harbhajan his 200th ODI
wicket, but that was not enough in the end to reach the
250-mark. PTI
