India Captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and decided to bat first at Lords. This match is like final whoever team win this match will clinch the series. India made only one change they have included left arm seamer R.P.Singh in place of expensive Ajit Agrakar. Rest of the team is same who have won thrilling encounter at Oval. England team made only one change in their Squad. They have included Andrew Flintoff in place of Aliastar Cook.
After 6 overs India were 26/1 with Sachin Tendulkar not out on 11 and Gautam Gambhir not out on 0 with Saurav Ganguly back in the pavilion for 15 run. Match had started from 2.45 PM (Indian Time which will be Day Match) Final Playing XI for Both teams: Indian Squad: Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Rahul Dravid (C), Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK), Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Ramesh Pawar, R.P. Singh England Squad: Matt Prior (WK), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood (C), Owasis Shah, Luke Wright, Andrew Flintoff, Dimitry Mascarenhas, Stuart Broad, Monty Panesar, James Anderson Earlier Post: The final flourish encounter between Indian and England is set for another thrilling encounter. After down in the series by 1-3 Indians came back strongly by winning back-to-back matches to level the Seven match ODI series by 3-3. The home team will be looking to win their first series under their new captain Paul Collinwood and on the other hand Indians were looking to end their long tour on winning note. The momentum is really with the Indians by winning last two matches but they have to continue this momentum to win the series and their tours on successful notes. India approached the previous two games with nothing to lose, going out there and expressing themselves freely. Now they are faced with a situation where victory is nearby. Rahul Dravid warned against complacency but admitted that the team had come some distance since the shattering scenes at Old Trafford. "I knew we really had to fight hard. We had our backs to the wall," said Dravid. "We had to script a really good comeback. Indians have some good past memories at Lords, they have won their only World Cup here in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev by beating Wes Indies in the final. On last tour in 2002 Saurav Ganguly and his men did what was un-imaginable after loosing five wickets on 144 and still they have chased down 329 runs set by England in the Natwest Trophy final. The two-month-long tour has come to an end at the home of cricket. India can double their joy of the Test series win with just one more victory and after their performance at The Oval, don't put it past them. Indian think tank for Today’s match decided to go with Seven and four combination. They have made one changes though by leaving expensive Ajit Agarkar out of the playing XI by giving left armer R.P. Singh a chance for this final match. Rests of the team are same as were at Oval. On other hand Andrew Flintoff are likely to play the match at Lords by taking some pain killer injection. So in this case they may left out Dimitry Mascarenhas. |
