Sports
By Harpreet Kaur Lamba
Kanpur
Nov. 20: India continued with their winning momentum, getting the better of England on a dramatic day here in the third of the seven-match one-day series at the Green Park Stadium on Thursday.
Chasing 240 for victory in 49 overs — a hazy morning delaying the start of play — the hosts were declared winners by 16 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method after bad light halted play. India were 168/4 in 40 overs, with skipper M.S. Dhoni (29 not out) and Yusuf Pathan (12 not out) at the crease.
With the par score set at 182 in 40 overs, India were ahead by 16 runs and were declared winners despite complaints from England skipper Kevin Pietersen.
Though not as dramatic as their earlier two victories in terms of dominance and run difference, there was enough action on the field to keep the spectators engaged. With overcast conditions making it difficult to continue, Dhoni and Pathan walked off the ground after umpires offered light.
Pietersen, on the other hand, thought playing under floodlights was a better option and was engaged in a long conversation with field umpires Amiesh Saheba and Russell Tiffin. Play was halted for close to five minutes, and with no chance of light improving, India were declared winners.
Pietersen walked away with a disgusted look knowing he had blown up a chance to claw back into the series. The skipper tried every trick in the book on the day to keep the Indians in control, but was outdone by some smart tactics and good team work.
The Englishman didn’t mince words later. "The ideal situation would have been to go for the floodlights, since you had the facility here. I wonder why they didn’t bother to go for it. We play in Guwahati in a few days time, which is in the north-east part of India. Probably the sun will go down at 3 pm there, there needs to be a change," he said.
Wary of the D/L method coming into play, India stuck to their guns and adopted smart tactics. Dhoni played to a plan, and made full use of the new powerplay rule — where the batting side can chose the third and final powerplay.
Bolstered by a good start by Virender Sehwag (68, 75 balls, 8x4, 1x6), it was finally left to the in-form Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni. Placed at 125/4 in 25.2 overs after Sehwag’s departure, Dhoni kept a close watch on the scoring rate and called for the third powerplay in the 35th over.
With the asking rate soaring above 6 an over, the duo broke the shackles to amass 25 runs in two overs that went a long way in resurrecting the team’s fortunes and taking them ahead of England, in case the D/L method was to come into play.
Said Dhoni after the match, "It was bound to happen. I had the sheet in my pocket when I went to bat. We knew if we didn’t lose wickets, we would get ahead of the equation. The pitch was slower when we batted and the odd ball was turning... but we had D/L in mind and we got off to a decent start and were always ahead of the equation."
Hit by the early dismissals of Gautam Gambhir (14, 17 balls, 3x4) and Suresh Raina (1), Sehwag along with Rohit Sharma stitched a 73-run partnership for the third wicket.
Yuvraj and Dhoni continued from there, gathering 52 runs for the fifth wicket. For England, Flintoff did the spadework maintaining a lethal line and length on a wicket that assisted bowlers. The former skipper bowled his heart out to finish with figures of 3/31. James Anderson scalped two, while Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann picked one apiece. Earlier, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (3/31) did the star turn for India after the visitors had looked promising. He scalped his 200th ODI wicket when he removed Owais Shah.
Going in for a change in the batting order, England began with Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell, pushing regular opener Matt Prior down the order. Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel made full use of the early morning dew restricting England to 14/0 in the first five overs. The openers began to find their feet once Ishant Sharma was introduced. Playing his first game of the series, Ishant had figures of 3-0-27-0 in his first spell, forcing Dhoni to introduce the spinners.
Placed at 101/1 — Munaf Patel getting rid of Bell (46) in the 15th over — man of the match Harbhajan came up all guns blazing to take the match away from England. Foxed by the loop and flight in his deliveries, England seemed to have lost the plot from there on. Bopara (60, 82 balls, 8x4) notched up third half-century, while Owais Shah (40), Flintoff (26) and Samit Patel (26) contributed down the order.
Ishant (2/60) also made amends in his second spell, scalping the wickets of Patel and Prior in consecutive balls. Zaheer finished with 1/45, while Munaf picked up 2/36.
- Lights out for England
By Harpreet Kaur Lamba
Kanpur
Nov. 20: India continued with their winning momentum, getting the better of England on a dramatic day here in the third of the seven-match one-day series at the Green Park Stadium on Thursday.
Chasing 240 for victory in 49 overs — a hazy morning delaying the start of play — the hosts were declared winners by 16 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method after bad light halted play. India were 168/4 in 40 overs, with skipper M.S. Dhoni (29 not out) and Yusuf Pathan (12 not out) at the crease.
With the par score set at 182 in 40 overs, India were ahead by 16 runs and were declared winners despite complaints from England skipper Kevin Pietersen.
Though not as dramatic as their earlier two victories in terms of dominance and run difference, there was enough action on the field to keep the spectators engaged. With overcast conditions making it difficult to continue, Dhoni and Pathan walked off the ground after umpires offered light.
Pietersen, on the other hand, thought playing under floodlights was a better option and was engaged in a long conversation with field umpires Amiesh Saheba and Russell Tiffin. Play was halted for close to five minutes, and with no chance of light improving, India were declared winners.
Pietersen walked away with a disgusted look knowing he had blown up a chance to claw back into the series. The skipper tried every trick in the book on the day to keep the Indians in control, but was outdone by some smart tactics and good team work.
The Englishman didn’t mince words later. "The ideal situation would have been to go for the floodlights, since you had the facility here. I wonder why they didn’t bother to go for it. We play in Guwahati in a few days time, which is in the north-east part of India. Probably the sun will go down at 3 pm there, there needs to be a change," he said.
Wary of the D/L method coming into play, India stuck to their guns and adopted smart tactics. Dhoni played to a plan, and made full use of the new powerplay rule — where the batting side can chose the third and final powerplay.
Bolstered by a good start by Virender Sehwag (68, 75 balls, 8x4, 1x6), it was finally left to the in-form Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni. Placed at 125/4 in 25.2 overs after Sehwag’s departure, Dhoni kept a close watch on the scoring rate and called for the third powerplay in the 35th over.
With the asking rate soaring above 6 an over, the duo broke the shackles to amass 25 runs in two overs that went a long way in resurrecting the team’s fortunes and taking them ahead of England, in case the D/L method was to come into play.
Said Dhoni after the match, "It was bound to happen. I had the sheet in my pocket when I went to bat. We knew if we didn’t lose wickets, we would get ahead of the equation. The pitch was slower when we batted and the odd ball was turning... but we had D/L in mind and we got off to a decent start and were always ahead of the equation."
Hit by the early dismissals of Gautam Gambhir (14, 17 balls, 3x4) and Suresh Raina (1), Sehwag along with Rohit Sharma stitched a 73-run partnership for the third wicket.
Yuvraj and Dhoni continued from there, gathering 52 runs for the fifth wicket. For England, Flintoff did the spadework maintaining a lethal line and length on a wicket that assisted bowlers. The former skipper bowled his heart out to finish with figures of 3/31. James Anderson scalped two, while Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann picked one apiece. Earlier, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (3/31) did the star turn for India after the visitors had looked promising. He scalped his 200th ODI wicket when he removed Owais Shah.
Going in for a change in the batting order, England began with Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell, pushing regular opener Matt Prior down the order. Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel made full use of the early morning dew restricting England to 14/0 in the first five overs. The openers began to find their feet once Ishant Sharma was introduced. Playing his first game of the series, Ishant had figures of 3-0-27-0 in his first spell, forcing Dhoni to introduce the spinners.
Placed at 101/1 — Munaf Patel getting rid of Bell (46) in the 15th over — man of the match Harbhajan came up all guns blazing to take the match away from England. Foxed by the loop and flight in his deliveries, England seemed to have lost the plot from there on. Bopara (60, 82 balls, 8x4) notched up third half-century, while Owais Shah (40), Flintoff (26) and Samit Patel (26) contributed down the order.
Ishant (2/60) also made amends in his second spell, scalping the wickets of Patel and Prior in consecutive balls. Zaheer finished with 1/45, while Munaf picked up 2/36.
- Sachin, Irfan back in squad
By OUR CORRESPONDENT
Kanpur
Nov. 20: Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar returned to the one-day fold after a gap of eight months having been drafted in the Indian squad for the next two one-dayers of the seven-match series against England.
Baroda paceman Irfan Pathan was also included in the squad while fellow left-arm pacer Rudra Prasad Singh and Tamil Nadu opener Murali Vijay, who were part of the team for the first three matches of the seven match series, were dropped.
Squad: M.S. Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag (vice captain), Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Virat Kohli, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan.
***
Administrative role for Dada
By OUR CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi
Nov. 20: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly was on Thursday nominated to the technical commitee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, just weeks after announcing his retirement from the game.
While the nature of his job was not indicated, he will be part of a powerful body headed by another former captain, Sunil Gavaskar which takes decisions on cricketing matters and rule changes. "Sourav Ganguly has been nominated to the technical committee of the BCCI," a press release from the BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said.
Apart from Gavaskar, the committee also has former Test openers Chetan Chauhan and Kris Srikkanth as its members.
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
