Sun, 23 Oct 2011 - India vs England, England Tour of India 2011-12, 4th ODI - Bulletin

Clinical India make it 4-0

India continue their domination over hapless England as home team scored yet another comprehensive victory over the latter to make it 4-0 in the ongoing five-ODI series. After Indian spin pair of R Ashwin and Ravindu Jadeja and 3 for 24 on the debut from fast bowler Varun Aaron restricted England to 220, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina proved to be main architects in the batting effort to reach the target with best part of ten overs in the bank.

In-form Kohli enhanced his reputation as the best young batting talent in the world hitting a classy 86 and in Raina’s company added 131 for the fourth wicket to fashion out a one-sided victory. Kohli unbeaten knock was laced with eleven fours, twelve fours powered 62-ball stay from Raina before he fell with just 46 to win.

India’s pursuit to get 221 was dented early with Steve Finn and debutant Steve Meaker amongst the wickets upfront. Finn five over hostile spell with the new ball was rewarded with the wickets of Parthiv Patel and Gautam Gambhir who went for 8 and one respectively. Meaker bagged his first ODI wicket when Ajinkye Rahane edged one for Craig Kieswetter to complete a terrific diving catch behind the stumps. At that point of time, the hosts were in a spot of bother with score reading 46 for 3 in the 14th over before Kohli-Raina combination turned the tide their way.

The right handed Kohli cover drive majestically, as he has done throughout this series, and picked single at ease as he anchored the chase maturely. Raina was power combined with some touch as he preferred attack over caution. The duo was successful in their respective approaches with ever run lessening England chance of springing a revival.

The right-left handed combination negotiated both pace and spin with aplomb as England bowlers wilted when the charge was on. Except for Finn, who was by far the best bowler on the scene, bowlers struggled to contain Raina and Kohli.

Fittingly, it was Finn who ended the match winning stand when Raina missed a wild slog only to see his off-stump shattered. MS Dhoni and Kohli rounded off the required runs in 40.1 overs with Indian skipper hitting a six and four in his 18-ball 15.

As has been the case in first three ODI’s, most of English batsmen got starts but failed to play substantial innings resulting in a score of only 220. And, yet again the tourists’ batsmen struggled against Indian spinners with twenty overs from R Ashwin and Ravindu Jadeja yielding five wickets for only 79 runs. Much talked about pacer Aaron ripped through England’s tail to have English team all-out in the 47th over.

A flurry of boundaries in his 18-ball 29 from Craig Kieswetter followed by steady 39 and 41 respectively from Johnathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen and Bresnan’s late fight charge was all to write home about English batting effort. A rapid start at the top that saw Kieswetter four fours and a couple of sixes was wasted with both openers departing at a score of 39. Ashwin was first to strike trapping Alistair Cook leg before the wickets for a 19-ball 10 at the end of 6th over in which he conceded fifteen runs as well. The innings subsided as medium pacer Praveen Kumar got first ball of the next over to straighten and keep low for umpire Billy Bowden to make an easy LBW decisions.

Pietersen and Trott did the rearguard adding 73 for the third wicket with both batsmen mixing some quality strokes with precise placement to get ones and twos. The duo managed to score five runs-an-over with minimum of risk but Indian bowlers kept pegging away to dent England’s progress.

Vinay Kumar’s return spell gave India a breakthrough with one that kept low to breach Trott’s defence. Trott’s 48-ball tenure laced with five fours ended with score at 112. England could add only 14 more before losing Pietersen to a stunner by substitute Manoj Tiwary at deep mid-wicket. Pietersen’s 61-ball 41 with the help of five fours and a six ended when batsman launched a powerful slog sweep off Ashwin only to be stunned by a diving Tiwary to take a two handed catch.

Pietersen’s departure followed dismissal of English batsmen regularly. Ravi Bopara was caught plumb infront by Jadeja before disturbing Jonnie Bairstow’s off-bail with a peach that pitch on middle stump and turned ever so sharply to beat batsman’s defensive blade. Samit Patel and Bresnan added 47-with most of them coming from the latter’s blade-to stage a recovery of sorts. With score reading 192 for 6 in the 40th over, the tourists would have been thinking of a score in excess of 250. Ashwin, though, returned to break the stand with Kohli taking a well judged catch at mid-wicket boundary to dismiss Patel for a very slow 14.

Bresnan did hit some boundaries to take score past 200 but Aaron’s pacy yorkers were too hot to handle for England’s tail. The young pacer took a wicket each in three consecutive overs ending the innings by shattering Bresnan’s stumps.