DLF League

The lights go out on England

India triumphed on Duckworth Lewis in the gloom at Kanpur to make it three from three and leave England a mountain to climb in the seven-match one-day series. England’s 240 always seemed a little under par after an impressive opening partnership of 79 in 15 overs between Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara had hinted at better things.

But India's spinners, and Harbhajan in particular, again strangled the life out of the England innings and despite several batsmen getting starts, the regular fall of wickets meant no momentum was ever built up and the team, despite having a long batting order, again failed to bat out its allocation of overs.

When India came to bat it was Virender Sehwag who led the way, hitting a rapid 68 to take India most of the way home. England finally managed to get Yuvraj Singh out for less than a hundred but his rapid 38 meant India were cruising before the end, despite the manful efforts of the tourists’ attack. The light, gloomy all day, eventually caused the umpires to call the players off and India were comfortably ahead, requiring 43 from nine overs with five wickets in hand. A D/L win by 16 runs was the result.

England’s performance was an improvement on their last two outings, but again nobody made the big score that forms the bedrock of an imposing one-day total. With the ball Andrew Flintoff was back to his parsimonious best, despite having to bowl in the Powerplay overs – something he will have to get increasingly used to with the introduction of the batting Powerplay – and Graeme Swann proved the worth of fielding a specialist spinner by turning in an impressive performance.

England’s lack of a fifth front-line bowler always looked like it could cause problems, and so it proved, with Samit Patel and Kevin Pietersen sharing six innocuous overs. The game may look tight on paper but it is worth remembering that this pair, or a fellow part-timer, would have had to bowl another three overs had the game continued.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said: ”In the morning at the toss I said that D/L would come into play. 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." Dhoni and his increasingly impressive side march on, with the series now firmly in their sights.


KEY MOMENTS

6.5 – WICKET – Gambhir c Broad b Flintoff 14 (17b 3x4) – India 31-1
9.1 – WICKET – Raina b Broad 1 (8b) – India 34-2
12.3 – India 50 (Sehwag 31, Sharma 2)
18.4 – Sehwag 50 (61 balls, 7 x4, 1 x 6)
20.1 – India 100 (Sehwag 58, Sharma 25)
22.4 – WICKET – Sharma c Prior b Swann 28 (41b 3x4) – India 107-3
25.2 – WICKET – Sehwag c Collingwood b Flintoff 68 (76b 8x4 1x6) – India 125-4
33.3 – India 150 (Dhoni 10, Yuvraj  24)
35.6 – WICKET – Yuvraj c Broad b Flintoff 38 (31b 2x4 1x6) – India 177-5