England is 3-1 up in the seven match series, thanks to some desperate batting by India and an all-round performance by Stuart Broad, smashing Indian hopes of leveling the series so far.
India winning the toss elected to bat first, thinking to set a mammoth target in front of England. However, the side failed to set a demanding target especially when opener Saurav Ganguly walked away without doing any damage. Only Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh contributed in reasonable terms to the side, with Zaheer Khan coming at the end hitting few to the boundary to enable the tourists pass the 200 mark.
Facing a decent target of 213 to chase, England innings started on a bad note and remained the same until Ravi Bopara (43no) and Stuart Broad (45no) provided solace to the home team reeling on 114-7. Indian bowling and fielding was quite aggressive looking to erase the blunders of the third ODI, but to 99 run record partnership for the eighth wicket between Bopara and Broad dashed Indian hopes of a much-wanted victory.
Broad’s all-round performance smashing unbeaten 45 and four wicket haul won him the man of the match award and his side victory, putting England 3-1 up in the series. From here, India goes into the fifth match and with three encounters in the series remaining, India needs to bring all their experience and recollect what went wrong. Rebuilding the confidence and morale of the side lies with the captain and how much Rahul Dravid succeeds in that, we all will be witness to it in the rest of the series.
Via: BBC
