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Untitled Document
 England beat India to win series decider at Lord's
8th Sep 2007 23:00 IST
Agencies
Form deserted the Indian batsmen when they needed it most and England, riding on twin unbeaten half centuries by Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood, trounced the lacklustre visitors by seven wickets to pocket the seven-match series 4-3 at Lord's in London today.
Chasing 188 runs for win, England cruised to the target with 82 balls to spare and bulk of the runs came from captain Collingwood (64 not out) and Man-of-the-match Pietersen (71).
England had an easy target but Rudra Pratap Singh's two-wicket burst in the second over jolted them, and they lost one more wicket before Pietersen and Collingwood took them to victory with sedate knocks.
Defending a paltry total of 187, Indian bowlers knew they stood hardly any chance in the match but RP Singh still injected some life in it with those strikes that left the hosts to 11/2. The only other time India celebrated was when Man of the Series Ian Bell returned run out for 36.
RP Singh drew the first blood when Luke Wright went for a pull only to allow the bowler a world of time to place himself under the ballooning ball. And two balls later, it was Matt Prior, who edged behind the stumps before he could open his account.
Bell and Pietersen then arrested the slide before an almighty mix-up saw bowler Sourav Ganguly collecting a low throw from Sachin Tendulkar and whip off the bails with Bell's outstretched bat hanging in the air.
Pietersen, who had not played a major role in the series so far rose to the occasion and together with Collingwood played with utmost confidence and did not relax till the job was done.
In the end, Pietersen was not out on 71 that came off 96 balls and included six boundaries and a huge six off Piyush Chawla, his nemesis in the series.
Collingwood took 73 balls for his 64 runs that had seven boundaries and a six.
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