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England v India 2nd ODI
SECOND NATWEST ODI MATCH, Bristol
India 208/5 beat England 196/7 by 12 runs
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This brought Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid to the crease. Sharma found it
difficult to score freely and after a partnership of 52 he was dismissed for 20.
Paul Collingwood got an off cutter to grip and hit Sharma in front of off stump.
With Yuvraj Singh in Dravid continued to rotate the strike whilst Singh looked
to accelerate the score. Singh smashed 37 from just 18 balls in an innings
that included 7 fours and a six. Just as Dravid started to hit some boundaries
Monty Panesar removed them both within the space of a few balls. Dravid
was caught at deep square leg by Broad for 57 from 89 balls, and then Singh
missed a full ball he tried to sweep and was trapped plumb leg before.
MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh both hit a boundary to give England a target
of 209 to win from 50 overs.
Alastair Cook and Matt Prior put on 54 for the first wicket partnership before
India got their first breakthrough. Irfan Pathan pegged back Prior's middle
stump, the wicket keeper batsmen making 29 from 40 balls. Ian Bell joined
Cook and the two started ticking things over quite comfortably. But just 8
short of his half century Cook departed thanks to a fine piece of bowling by
Harbhajan Singh. Singh enticed Cook with a flighted delivery and with the left
hander charging, the ball slid under Cook's bat and cannoned into his off
stump.
Pietersen came to the wicket and, like Tendulkar, found it hard to play his
normal quality strokes. Bell and Pietersen moved the score onto 151 but the
run rate was starting to climb. Piyush Chawla dismissed Pietersen leg before
for 22 off a very slow 59 balls to bring Owais Shah to the crease. With the
score at 152/3 the mayhem started. Ian Bell defended one into the off side
and called for a single but after a few steps turned back. Shah was already
half way down the wicket and had no chance of making it back. Sharma
flicked the ball to Chawla who whipped off the bails at the non-strikers end.
The captain Paul Collingwood came to the crease with England needing 57
runs to win. Two balls after the Shah run out another England batsmen was
heading back to the pavilion thanks to a run out. Again it was the batsmen
who hadn't faced a delivery, the captain Collingwood, to depart from the
middle. Bell hit a cut shot past the point fielder and immediately called two.
It looked a comfortable two until Collingwood slipped on his turn. Pathan, the
fielder, threw the ball into the non-strikers end and despite a despairing dive
the England captain couldn't make it.
Things had changed within minutes and it wasn't about to stop there. Flintoff
was the new batsmen with Ian Bell at the crease. With Bell just 2 away from
a deserved half century disaster struck for the fourth time within the space of
two runs. With runs needed Bell went for the slog sweep and connected well
only for it to find Irfan Pathan on the square leg boundary.
With the lower order and bowlers left to try and reach the target it was down
to Andrew Flintoff and Dimi Mascarenhas to hit most of the runs. But yet
again England's running was their downfall, this time the explosive Flintoff
departing. A close single was picked up by Yuvraj Singh and with a direct hit
found Flintoff an inch short of his ground.
Mascarenhas and Broad had the tough task of hitting 10 an over on a spinning
pitch. They both hit lusty blows but good tight death bowling by Yuvraj Singh
and Piyush Chawla meant India won with 12 runs to spare.
With the series tied at 1-1 the teams move on to Egbaston for the third ODI.
Scorecard