 In the fifth ODI when all seems to be lost Indians came back strongly to beat England by 38 runs on D/L method to stay alive in the Seven match ODI series. Earlier England captain Paul Collinwood won the toss and decide to bowl first with cloudy weather around. His decision was looking correct when Indians were 7/0 in five over. But the most successful opening pair in the world played some superb shorts after that to raise the Indian fifty in just 9th over of the match. Both have put on 116 for the first wicket before Sachin Tendulkar (71 runs of 59 balls) got out caught behind.
Gautam Gambhir then arrives to the crease and played tentatively at start but after few anoxious moment he got the start he wanted and made cracking 51 runs of 66 balls. Yuvraj Singh who has looked in superb form through out the series played another good knock for Indian and he made 72 runs before he got out in trying to accelerate the tempo. After some lusty hitting by Rahul Dravid (24 run of 17 balls) and M.S Dhoni (24 run of 17 balls) at end India manage to score 324/6 in 50 overs. England were off to a torrid start as Ajit Agarkar snared the wicket of opener Alistair Cook in the fourth over. The bowler then induced an edge off Ian Bell but Sourav Ganguly at second slip failed to hold on to the catch.. Bell and Matthew Prior, however, replied with aggressive intent as they put on 90 runs for the second wicket in a mere 64 balls, threatening to take the game away from the visitors. But the two quick wickets from Ganguly and Zaheer England were struggling at 4/104. After that rain stopped play and England got reduce target of 311 runs in 45 overs. But they were never in the game and lost wickets at regular interval. Even though England skipper Paul Collingwood remained not out on a brilliant 91 off only 71 balls with the help of three fours and four sixes, he failed to beat the dreaded Duckworth-Lewis system. Saurav Ganguly was declared Man of the Match with his brilliant 59 with bat and for taking 2-26 in his 7 over spell. Match Summary India – 324/6 in 50 Overs Yuvraj Singh – 72 Sachin Tendulkar – 71 Saurav Ganguly - 59 Paul Collinwood– 10-1-48-1 England – 242/8 in 39 Overs Paul Collngwood – 91* Matt Prior – 46 Saurav Ganguly – 7-0-26-2 |
