India wins the Fourth match and the ODI series

by Rupesh UK

The fourth match of the Hero Honda cup was played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. India who leads the series 3-0 would try to win the match and pocket the seven match One Day International (ODI) series. England had to win the match for any hopes of survival in the series.

sehwag gambhir mCcHs 17022

It was a cloudy day in Bangalore and the conditions were quite damp. The English skipper Kevin Pietersen, who won the toss decided to bowl first hoping to take some early wickets with help from the moisture. Meanwhile, the ground staff who had seen it rain, had felt water in the air and they knew that a single downpour would rob the spectators a complete 50 over match. India opened with Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, who came in place of Rohit Sharma. Shewag was in his attacking self launching from the very first ball that he faced. Sachin, playing a ODI after a long gap of nearly eight months looked comfortable and handled the pacy Stuart Broad with ease, by driving one of his deliveries to a boundary. But a minor interruption in play saw Sachin (11) losing his concentration and was out in the very first ball that he faced after the break. Gambhir walked in to bat at number three position to join his crony Sehwag. With clouds hovering above the ground, both the batsman started to accelerate the run meter and it was obvious that the team were looking for a huge score, in the event of a rain interruption that might cut short the allotted 50 overs. After 14 overs it began to rain. The play stopped for nearly two hours and the match was reduced to 44 overs a side. That did not stop Sehwag, who attacked and in the process completed his 32nd ODI half century.

The rain poured again after another three overs and another lengthy break resulted the match to be further reduced to 22 overs a side. With only five overs left in India's quota and the score card reading 106, Sehwag lofted the first ball to six. Not perturbed by the aggression, Pietersen decided for an all-out spin attack and that paid as Sehwag was castled by Graeme Swann, who went for another massive hit. That brought Yuvraj to the crease, who brought with him more chill to the bowlers as he too joined the party with three scorching hits off the fence. Gambhir (40) and skipper M.S.Dhoni (9) fell trying to accelerate. Yousuf Pathan (6) came in and ended the show with a six off the only delivery that he faced, leaving the Englishmen frothing and wondering if all the power-hitters were now in the Indian squad. India scored 166 for four, the last five overs adding 60 runs. For England, Swann took 2 wickets, while Patel and Broad captured a wicket each.

England walked into bat with a revised target set in front of them. As per the Duckworth-Lewis method, England had to chase 198 runs in its allotted 22 overs. England started badly losing an early wicket. Owais Shah held one end tight as wickets kept falling on the other end, including that of skipper Pietersen. Andrew Flintoff joined Shah in the middle and both the batsman started to play aggressively. By the 15th over, England raced to 126 runs. England opted for the third power-play of two overs, but failed to capitalize and it lost the wickets of Shah (72) and then Flintoff (41) in the next over. Paul Collingwood, who has had a miserable series so far tried hard, running every possible single and looking for boundaries along with Samit Patel, but once Patel (11) left the target seemed to look more impossible. Munaf Patel bowled the last over and he ran out Swann and Collingwood, stopping the English run chase and England folded their innings at 178 for 8. India won the match by 20 runs and it also has an unassailable lead of 4-0 in the series. For India, Zaheer, Patel and Sharma took two wickets each while Harbhajan took one. Shewag took the Player of the match award for his fiery innings.