The Hindu : Sport : India huffs and puffs to make 212

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India huffs and puffs to make 212

S. Dinakar

Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh hold the innings together with a good stand

Manchester: Cricket, at the highest level, is a game of chess. There are moves and counter moves.

Paul Collingwood tossed the ball to Kevin Pietersen during an intriguing phase of the fourth NatWest ODI at the Old Trafford on Thursday.

It proved a masterstroke.

Sachin Tendulkar, orchestrating an Indian recovery and having just completed his 81st ODI half-century, miscued an offering to be held at deep square-leg. Fiercely focussed till that point, the maestro’s concentration levels dropped just a little.

Battling effort

Tendulkar’s 55 (86b, 9x4) had been a battling effort under spells of cloud cover, on a windy afternoon, but he walked back a disappointed man.

England, leading the seven-match series 2-1, restricted India to 212 on a surface offering the pacemen a fair measure of assistance.

The innings lasted 49.4 overs and it was only some brave blows by tail-enders Piyush Chawla and Zaheer Khan that took India past the 200-run mark.

Collingwood is evolving as an ODI captain. After a free-stroking Yuvraj Singh had blasted paceman Stuart Broad for 16 runs in an over, pulling and then driving the bowler through covers, Collingwood brought the youngster back for his third spell. Broad rewarded his skipper, foxing Yuvraj (71, 104b, 5x4, 1x6, ) with a slower, fuller length delivery that knocked back the leg-stump. England had struck again at a critical juncture. Broad, eventually, finished with four wickets.

The left-handed Yuvraj joined Tendulkar when India was struggling at 32 for three in 12 overs.

He held the innings together, playing the second fiddle in a crucial fourth-wicket partnership of 71 in 17.3 overs with Tendulkar.

This was an effort when Yuvraj combined his natural ability with application and displayed improved footwork.

Panesar’s magic

There were moments of bowling brilliance. Monty Panesar conjured a left-arm spinner’s dream ball — the delivery drifted in and then spun away to hit off-stump — to signal curtains for M.S. Dhoni.

Panesar was outstanding in his second spell of five overs for 13 runs with a wicket in the later stages of the innings. He displayed his versatility in the manner he went over the wicket and spun a few deliveries away from the left-handed Yuvraj.

Earlier, Tendulkar’s footwork was precise and a delicious flick off James Anderson threw light on his balance. A glorious off-drive off Broad highlighted his timing.

India, rightly, elected to bat, a cloud-cover notwithstanding. India also stuck to the five-bowler formula, which meant Ajit Agarkar returned to the XI replacing the struggling Munaf Patel. With just four specialist pacemen in the squad, the team-management is short of options.

Pace and fire

Flintoff returned to the side for England and bowled with typical pace and fire, both with a semi new-ball and in the later stages of the innings. He used the short-pitched deliveries effectively to disrupt the rhythm of the batsmen. Collingwood mixed his pace and length well to send down a creditable spell in the vital middle overs.

The surface offered definite bounce and carry and the Lancashire lad James Anderson was his lively self. This was a pitch where bowling just short of a good length, denying the batsmen the opportunity to drive off the front foot nor giving them room to crash the ball off the back-foot, was not a bad idea.

India needed a start but Sourav Ganguly’s attempted pull off an Anderson lifter, was pouched without fuss by a sprinting Ian Bell. The left-hander had begun with a dash of aggression, charging Stuart Broad and top-edging to the boundary.

The logic behind sending Dinesh Karthik at No 3. could not be faulted but the right-hander disappointed. The situation demanded a tighter game from Karthik, but the right-hander denied runs through some tight fielding in the circle, eventually slashed at a widish delivery from Broad for Mathew Prior to snaffle the snick.

SCOREBOARD

India: S. Ganguly c Bell b Anderson 9, S. Tendulkar c Flintoff b Pietersen 55, D. Karthik c Prior b Broad 4, R. Dravid c Prior b Flintoff 1, Yuvraj b Broad 71, M.S. Dhoni b Panesar 13, A. Agarkar c Prior b Broad 6, R. Powar c Bell b Broad 7, P. Chawla (not out) 13, Zaheer c Collingwood b Anderson 20, R.P. Singh c Bopara b Anderson 0; Extras: (lb-4, w-8, nb-1) 13; Total: (in 49.4 overs) 212.

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-31, 3-32, 4-103, 5-140, 6-147, 7-178, 8-179, 9-210.

England bowling: Broad 10-1-51-4, Anderson 9.4-2-38-3, Flintoff 10-3-31-1, Panesar 10-0-39-1, Collingwood 9-0-43-0, Pietersen 1-0-6-1

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