Sun, 11 Sep 2011 - England vs India,India Tour of England 2011, 4th ODI - Bulletin

Rain forces cliffhanger to end in a tie

It doesn’t get more dramatic than this. With weather playing all kinds of tricks and naughtiness at the fag end of England’s run chase at the Lord’s in fourth ODI, game swung to either side as every break gave a new turn to the proceedings. After all the drama, rain returned for the third time to force a tie as per D/L method with England’s score reading 270 for 48.5 overs in reply to India’s 280 for 6. This means England win the series and the visitors have been left with only one chance to get off the mark on the tour.

When rain interrupted for the first time at the end of 44th over, it was India that was ahead by 2 runs. On second time around at the end of 45th over, things were in England’s favour with same margin. As drama had it, when rai fell for good, both teams were fittingly tied.

For India it was Munaf Patel who ensured tied result thanks to his unfinished 49th over in which he ran-out Graeme Swann and dismissed Ravi Bopara before the game was abandoned.

The innings though belonged to Ravi Bopara who hit career best 96, perhaps a career revving innings, to guide England’s chase. The Essex opener had three important partnerships to dent India’s hopes of winning their first game. After doing a damage control with Ian Bell, Bopara combined with Tim Bresnan to revive England and then had almost match winning stand of 50 runs with Swann. Bopara showed a great deal of common sense and application during his 106 stay at the crease that saw him hit six fours and run hard between the wickets to steal brisk singles and twos.

England were looking in desperate situation when Bresnan was dismissed with 60 more still needed. Bopara and Swann who scored quickfire 31 ensured England didn’t lose against India this summer.Earlier Singh’s double strike with the new ball dented England’s chase upfront. The left arm pacer dismissed both the openers cheaply to reduce the home team 27 for 2 inside six overs. He had Craig Kieswetter miscuing one to extra-cover and his next over saw England captain Alastair Cook hit one straight to short covers. After openers’ departure, Johnathan Trott hit some neat strokes but inside edged one to his stump while attempting a pull short off Praveen Kumar. The England’s number three fell for 23 in 13th over with team score at 61.

Bopara and Ian Bell got together to fashion out England’s fightback with crucial 98 for the fourth wicket. The partnership was marked with some levelheaded approach: concentrating on hitting the gaps for singles and doubles and taking care of run rate by occasional boundaries. Bell was at ease during his stay at the crease with runs coming easily for the stylish right-hander. But he had a lapse in concentration skipping down the wicket against Ravindu Jadeja to mishit one to deep extra cover. R Ashwin tilted the balance in India’s favour dismissing Ben Stokes and reducing England to 173 for 5 in 36th over.

It was Tim Bresnan who partnered Bopara to bring England’s chase on the track. Bresnan hit some terrific strokes during his 22-ball 27 and 47 run stand. RP returned back to castle Bresnan from around the wicket angle to give India hope.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni scripted his team’s recovery in successive games after it was in spot of bother losing four top order batsmen for 110 inside 26 overs. It was Suresh Raina this game who partnered Dhoni to help his side to post healthy 280 in fifty overs. The duo put on marathon 169 together with Raina hitting a splendid 84 off 75 balls and Dhoni coming up with another captain’s knock reaming unbeaten on 71-ball 78.

For the fourth time toss went to Cook’s favour and England captain decided to put Indian in again having a tinge of grass that Lord’s surface had on it. England’s opening bowling pair of James Anderson and Steve Finn, getting a game in Jade Dernbach’s place, responded to skipper’s decision bowling some hostile stuff. They had Indian openers in all sorts of problems but without luck. Parthiv Patel and Ajinkye Rahane outer-edged, top-edged and were beaten regularly. In between those streaky moments, both played some clean strokes to give India solid start.

The visitors put on 65 in the 14th over before Stuart Broad struck inn consecutive overs. Rahane was first to go when he missed a low full toss for umpire to make an easy LBW decision to make. Rahane scored 33 off 58 balls and Parthiv followed him next over of Broad top-edging a well directed short to mid-wicket for Bopara to take a tumbling catch. The left hander went for 32-ball 27 including a six off Anderson and India were 70 for 2 in 16th over.

Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli engaged themselves in mini-recovery adding 39 for the third wicket. England tightened the screws and run-rate had a dip. Dravid and Kohli steadied India to some extent but were dismissed in one Graeme Swan over before they could reap benefits of getting hang of the surface. Kohli’s horror continued as he edged the spinner to wicketkeeper Kieswetter while trying to dab a off-break. Three balls later Swan reduced India to 110 to 4 when he lured Dravid into leading edge and completing the catch in his follow through. Kohli consumed 36 balls for 16 runs while Dravid scored his 19 off 33.

With India in some strife, Dhoni and Raina took their time to settle before launching themselves into some breathtaking strokeplay. Batting got easier as the innings progressed with sun beating down on the Lord’s. Take nothing away from Dhoni-Raina recovery cum aggressive stand. After doing the rearguard, the duo went for big shots and made English bowlers to bowl in their hitting zones.

Such was the domination of left-right hand combination that last ten overs produced as many as 108 runs. Both batsmen preferred mid-wicket area to slam big shots. Raina hit some neat strokes straight down the ground and played few well controlled up and over point shots. The left hander hit seven fours and two six in his 75-ball knock and was dismissed in the last over.

Dhoni played some ferocious cut strokes and log-on to mid-wicket proved to be productive areas for Indian skipper. Dhoni’s 78 were punctuated three massive sixes and half a dozen fours.The home team was dealt with a major blow with Broad leaving the field yet to bowl four balls of his tenth over.