England Lions win tri-series by beating India in final
England Lions won the tri-series played against India and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in the final of the tournament which was played at Worcester on Thursday.
In the final, the Indians batted first after they lost the toss and were put in by the England Captain. However, the English side, who were probably banking on the early morning freshness in the track to get some early wickets were in for a surprise as a rather positive set of openers in Abhinav Mukund and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shikhar-Dhawan-c90019 added 68 for the first wicket in less than 10 overs.
Dhawan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajinkya-Rahane-c970 fell relatively quickly, and the Indians were 90/2 in the 15th over. it was then that the captain Cheteshwar Pujara and Mukund got the Indian innings back on track with a partnership of 37, before Mukund was dismissed. He had scored 62.
The rest of the Indian side did not add too many runs and frittered away the starts that they got. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Manoj-Tiwary-c1890 made 24, while Manish Pandey, surprisingly sent in at the number seven position could score only 13 as the side collapsed to end at 278/7 on a rather flat track at Worcester.
In reply, the English side lost their captain, Alastair Cook early. He scored only four, before being adjudged lbw off http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Gale-c1039 pulled the English side back into contention.
Gale scored 90 before he was out, while Davies’ 55 came off only 61 balls. Timely half century by Darren http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Stevens-c91368 saw the home team through to the target off the 49th over to claim the top honours on the crown. This meant that the English side had gone through the tournament without losing a single game. they had played five games, won four of them, and tied the one league game against India.
Pujara ended as the tournament’s highest scorer, and it is a surprise that he has not yet got a call-up from the national team. One senses that he would be on the brink of selection, and has shown enough signs that he will go on to become one of the best in the business.
England Lions captain Alastair Cook said that he was happy with the way the tournament had finished for his wards, given that all players contributed at one or the other time in the series.
Earlier, India needed a tied last league game to qualify for the final of the tournament.
England had batted first in that match and Ian Bell went on to smash a great century to propel the English score to more than 300. Bell, who missed the final, because he was called up on national duties against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747, was later declared man of the match in that game. not so surprisingly, he seemed to have taken that form into the first ODI against the Bangladeshi side as well and scored an unbeaten 80 and won the man of the match there too!
In the final league game, the side ended with 343 in the fifty overs and at that stage, it looked like the Indians would be blown out of the tournament.
Fortunately for them, Mukund had gone on to hit a nice century, while the rest of the Indians chipped in with 20s, 30s and 40s to get the Indians close enough. 16 runs were needed off seven balls for an improbable win when Jaskaran Singh was dismissed, but some lusty hitting meant that India needed two to win off the last ball. They scored only one, and the game ended in a tie, which meant that the two teams shared the points.
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