LIVE SCORE

November 26, 2008

England suffered their fifth straight defeat against India in the ongoing One Day Series with the hosts successfully chasing a testing target of 271. Virender Sehwag provided the perfect start for the Indians and although there was a brief comeback from the English bowlers, the task wasn’t too difficult for the homeside. India won this 5th ODI at the Barabari Stadium in Cuttack by 6 wickets with as many as 38 balls to spare. Captain MS Dhoni once again led the team under crisis through a well controlled half century.

Toss: India won a crucial toss and took the correct decision to field first as bowling in the evening would be a nightmare with the dew falling down annoyingly. The homeside made a couple of changes with Gambhir and Munaf making way for Rohit Sharma and Irfan Pathan respectively. England made a couple of changes as well by bringing on test specialists Alastair Cook and Steve Harmison for Ian Bell and Jimmy Anderson.

KP’s hundred lifts England to 270

It was going to be a two-paced wicket at the Barabati Stadium but it needed a score of 300 atleast for England to feel safe against a strong Indian batting side and taking the dew into account. The start for them was not the best as they lost both its openers in the first powerplay despite the conditions at the start being best. Zaheer Khan, who didn’t quite bowl at his best, was still good enough to capture the openers – Cook (caught chasing a wide one to slip) and Bopara (caught at point for a 33-ball 24). England were 68 for 2 and in came a struggling Paul Collingwood who joined Pietersen. The Indians strangled the run flow once the two powerplays were out of the way through the spinners.

England’s innings failed to kick off as Collingwood wasn’t in the best of nicks and the onus was on KP. But as time went by, Collingwood found some touch and the scoreboard was moving but by then they was plenty of dot balls played out. India came back strongly to not only put an end to this KP-Collingwood partnership but also to take the big wicket of Andrew Flintoff in the space of five balls during the 30th and the 31st over to reduce the score to 158 for 4. Collingwood ended up making 40 from 64 balls with 4 fours before getting brilliantly caught by a diving Zaheer in the deep and Flintoff was out for a 3-ball duck off a good delivery from an energetic Ishant Sharma.

The visitors were in total danger of getting bowled out for around 230 but they came back well through the pair of Pietersen and the inform Owais Shah. The two strokemakers made sure that their side didn’t lose any more wickets to lift the score to 270 for 4. Kevin Pietersen ended up with 111 from 128 balls with 10 fours and a six and Owais Shah made a breezy 66 from 57 balls with 9 fours. Yuvraj Singh surprisingly was the most economical bowler with his 10 overs taken for just the 38 runs! Comeback man Irfan Pathan failed to impress in his 10 overs but was unlucky not to have Bopara given out lbw early on.

Indian batsmen overpower the English bowlers

The English bowlers were put to sword by the experienced opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. While Sehwag was intimidating the bowlers with his strokeplay, Tendulkar was looking to give him as much of strike as possible and at the same time putting away the odd loose delivery. The bowling side eventually could break the opening stand but only in the 20th over when Tendulkar got too ambitious after having reached his 90th ODI fifty when he went for a big lofted shot but only to miss a Harmison delivery that was aimed at the off stump. The little master contributed 50 from 57 balls with 6 fours in an opening partnership of 136 in 19.5 overs. India received two more blows after that with the two dangerous batsmen – Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag falling in consecutive deliveries! Yuvraj Singh was caught and bowled by Ravi Bopara after playing too early while Sehwag was a bit wrongly given out lbw to a Broad delivery that could have gone down the legside.

Sehwag once again missed out on a hundred and this time by 9 runs. His knock came in just the 73 balls with 15 fours and a six. India found themselves in a tight corner with 115 more runs to win. There was enough room for England to come back strongly in the game after that but at the same time it was matter of just the one partnership as far as India were concerned. The problem for England at this point of time was losing Stuart Broad through a hamstring injury midway in his 9th over. India got into control through a sensible partnership between skipper MS Dhoni and the young Suresh Raina and the target came down at a healthy rate. England still had a batting powerplay to content with and they had just a few overs of Flintoff to take the wickets. The spinners were ineffective because of the ball getting wet all the time it went along the outfield.

India once again went along smoothly towards the target of 271 and even though MS Dhoni was given out lbw in a debatable fashion in the 41st over, things were truly under control with just 21 more to get. Dhoni worked his way to 50 from 61 balls with 5 fours before he was given out lbw to Swann despite coming down the track quite some distance. The Captain put on a vital stand of 94 with Raina which sealed the match for his team. Raina helped himself to an unbeaten run-a-ball 53 with 8 fours and finished the match with Rohit Sharma, who hit the winning boundary in the 44th over. England’s major hope with the ball was Andrew Flintoff who went wicketless despite bowling his heart out. Virender Sehwag got the Man of the Match for the second consecutive time in this series.