India vs England: exciting draw lives up to expectations - ICC World Cup 2011 match update
A thrilling encounter between England and India in Bangalore on Sunday, 27th February, has set the tone of the current rendition of the ICC World Cup. After seven hours of absorbing cricket, the match ended as a tie with both team scoring 338
runs each in their respective innings.
India won the toss and elected to bat first on a good batting track. The wicket was a touch on the slower side but there was nothing alarming for the batsmen.
The start to the innings for the hosts was nervy as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429 did not seem like he was in full flow. The flamboyant batsmen got three half-chances in the very first over of the game but survived all of them. Sehwag managed to construct a 46 run opening
partnership with veteran Sachin Tendulkar. After scoring 35 runs off 34 balls, Sehwag was sent back to the pavilion courtesy a brilliant catch from wicketkeeper Matt Prior.
The first-drop http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623 joined Tendulkar in the middle and the pair amassed a solid century stand for the second wicket. Gambhir was dismissed after managing 51 runs from 61 balls and India were 180 for the loss of 2 wickets in 29.4 overs.
This didn’t stop Tendulkar from playing his strokes freely, and the master blaster reached yet another century in One Day Internationals (ODIs), his second against England and 47th overall.
The class of Tendulkar eased the pressure on Yuvraj Singh, and he took his time to settle down. Tendulkar was dismissed in the 39th over, trying to lift the run-rate for his team in the batting power-play. He had done his job by scoring a brilliant
120 runs from 115 balls.
The downfall of India’s best batsman brought captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 to the crease and he took the score past 300 along with Yuvraj. However, both players were out on the same total in two balls, which saw a collapse for their batting line-up. Yuvraj was out after
scoring 58 runs off 50 balls whereas; Dhoni managed 31 from 25 before being dismissed.
Five wickets from Tim Bresnan helped England restrict the hosts to 338. At one stage, it looked as India would easily score more than 350 runs. However, the men-in-blue were all-out in 49.5 overs.
The visitors needed a solid opening partnership from captain Andrew Strauss and flamboyant batsman Kevin Pietersen. The pair didn’t disappoint and scored a 68 run stand for their team in 9.3 overs. However, Pietersen was dismissed after scoring a quick-fire
31 off just 22 balls.
The first-drop, Johnathan Trott, failed to support his captain and got out cheaply for just 16 from 19. This shifted the momentum of the game with the hosts but Ian Bell and Strauss pounded the Indian bowlers and constructed a brilliant 170 run partnership
for the third wicket.
This almost took the game away from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, but a wrong choice of the final batting power-play led to chaos for England. The visitors lost five wickets for just 26 runs as India came close to a victory with both Strauss and Bell sent back to the pavilion.
Strauss was dismissed after a valiant 158 runs from 145 balls whereas Bell amassed 69 from 71.
Cameos from Michael Yardy, Bresnan and Graeme Swann helped England tie the match at the end, which seemed to be a certain victory for them at one stage. They scored 13, 14 and 15 respectively.
Zaheer Khan was the pick of the bowlers for India as he took three wickets in the death overs to help his team bounce back in the game. He got some support from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Piyush-c82317 Chawla and Munaf Patel, who grabbed two wickets each.
Strauss was named player-of-the-match. He would have liked a win for his team, however the squad was happy with the result because a draw like this would have counted as a win for them in the knock-out stages, considering the number of wickets that had
fallen for both teams. The ICC World Cup 2011 race has become a very interesting story now, with top teams seeing India’s vulnerabilities and underdogs courage.
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