 England beat India to win series decider at Lord's
8th Sep 2007 23:00 IST
Agencies
Earlier, dubious decisions against Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid coupled with some poor batting saw India being bundled out for a paltry 187 runs after the Indian captain won the toss and elected to bat in overcast conditions.
A packed audience was disappointed as India lost their way from 52/1, losing their last nine wickets for just 135 runs and made the cardinal sin of not lasting their full quota of 50 overs, being dismissed in 47.3 overs.
Tendulkar (30), who has been in awesome form, got a rank bad decision from Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar while Dravid lasted just three balls.
But that apart, none of the Indian batsmen displayed the desire to stay at the wicket. Yuvraj Singh and last match's hero Robin Uthappa got out to soft dismissals after looking good.
India's number seven batsman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, showed necessary resilience that was missing from his more reputed colleagues to top score with a blazing half century.
Dhoni battled adversity by taking the attack to the bowlers, hitting four fours and one towering six off James Anderson before falling to Andrew Flintoff for a 72-ball knock of 50.
Flintoff (3/45), who missed the last two games due to an ankle injury, bowled with venom to prize out the key wickets of Dravid and Tendulkar while Anderson (2/28) bowled impressively yet again, cleaning up Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir in his first spell.
However, it was Dimitry Mascarenhas who finished with the best figures of 3/23 from 10 overs.
England catching was top class too, with Wright and Anderson taking excellent catches to dismiss Gambhir and Dhoni respectively.
The 'Big Three' of Indian cricket Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid, playing their farewell innings at Lord's failed to play a major knock.
Tendulkar again became a victim of poor umpiring decision when his pleasing knock was cut short on 30 (46b, 4x4) by umpire Dar who ruled him caught behind off Flintoff as he looked to play an expansive drive and was beaten. He was stunned to see the finger go up and walked back with disappointment writ large on his face.
Ganguly lived dangerously from the beginning, playing a few audacious shots in the air before edging Anderson to Flintoff at second slip for 15 (22b, 2x4) while Dravid fell for a three-ball duck.
The Indian captain shook his head in disbelief as umpire Dar ruled him out caught behind off a rising delivery from Flintoff, even though television replays showed that he missed the ball.
And for some reasons Ganguly preferred to use the long handle early in the innings. He charged down the wicket to hit Stuart Broad over cover for his first boundary before playing a few shots in the air that eluded the fielders. Then he ran out of luck in the 7th over when he poked his bat at Anderson and was caught at second slip.
Tendulkar looked determined to make the most of his final appearance at Lord's. Accordingly, after a cautious start, he got into the mood pulling Anderson off his front foot for his first boundary. When Flintoff came on to bowl, he smashed him for two consecutive boundaries over point and cover.
Gambhir fell to a brilliant catch at square leg by Wright who dived forward to take a low catch at square leg as he pulled a short one from Anderson.
From a decent 52/1 in the 13th over, India lost three wickets in 18 balls to slip to 59/4 in the 16th over. It soon became 119/6 in the 31st over when Yuvraj and Uthappa fell to soft dismissals.
Uthappa (22) square drove and hooked Flintoff for two boundaries in an over but he got carried away and was deceived by a slower one from Anderson that he hit straight to Mascarenhas at mid-off.
Yuvraj started off well, pulling Broad over mid-wicket for a six. He even looked to have got into his groove, scoring 28 off as many balls before he fell to a lazy stroke gliding Mascarenhas straight to Collingwood at short third man.
Dhoni stuck it out gamely at one end but was hopelessly lacking in support from the other end as Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla and Zaheer Khan collectively lasted just 28 balls.
Dhoni displayed some fireworks to collect handy boundaries before Anderson took a brilliant catch in the deep, running yards to his left at long off.
After winning the historic three-match Test series 1-0, Dravid's men found themselves trailing 1-3 on the one dayers, after punctuating the defeats at Southampton, Birmingham and Manchester with the win at Bristol.
Within a week, India bounced back with wins at Leeds and The Oval to level the series, which set-up the Lord's encounter as a grand finale. But in the end, it were the hosts, playing under a new skipper Collingwood, who had the last laugh. |
