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| Sunday, 30 June 2002 |
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Natwest Triangular one-day series: Dravid, Yuvraj carve out remarkable Indian win Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from England LONDON, June 29 - India put the brakes on confident England with a remarkable six-wicket win with seven balls to spare in the second match of the NatWest one-day series played at Lord's here today. In front of a 29,000 full house crowd, India put on a successful run chase to overhaul England's competitive total of 271-7 by scoring 272-4 in 48.5 overs. The architects of India's fine win were vice captain Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh who put together a record partnership of 131 off 127 balls. Dravid finished on 73 not out off 86 balls having completed his half-century off 73 balls with three fours, and left-hander Yuvraj made 64 off 65 balls, reaching his fifty off 54 balls with six fours. The pair erased India's previous best partnership for that wicket of 108 between Sachin Tendulkar and Ajay Jadeja against England at Sharjah in 1997. India seemed in trouble at 141-4 in the 28th over when they lost skipper Sourav Ganguly for 43 scored off 67 balls. But Dravid who was dropped at 23 by Alec Stewart and Yuvraj playing sensibly got their eye in and paced out the innings perfectly to earn India a thumping victory. Yuvraj's half-century followed his excellent left-arm bowling spell of 3-39 which rocked back England from a great start and won him the man-of-the-match award. India were off to a superb start chasing 272 to win when Virender Sehwag and Ganguly put on 109 off 106 balls for the first wicket. Sehwag timing the ball beautifully raced to a half-century off 48 balls with eight fours. But the introduction of Ashley Giles saw England stall India's advance to some extent when the left-arm spinner grabbed three wickets for nine runs in five overs. Giles ended Sehwag's innings at 71 scored off 65 balls when Trescothick brought off a brilliant diving catch at deep square leg, then bowled Dinesh Mongia for one and had Ganguly caught by James Kirtley who dived to his left at long off to come up with an extraordinary one-handed catch. It was a catch totally out of this world and inspired the England bowlers who were minus Gough and Caddick. When Ronnie Irani trapped Sachin Tendulkar lbw for one, Indian shoulders started to drop, but Dravid the man in a crisis and Yuvraj kept their heads to carve out a great win. England winning the toss once again and batting first raced away to another fine start and by the end of the 34th over were 201-3 and strongly placed for a total in excess of 300. But the Indian bowlers pulled back superbly in their second spells to allow England only 48 runs off the final 10 overs compared to the 87 they scored at the same stage against Sri Lanka on Thursday. It was the left-arm orthodox spin of Yuvraj Singh which strangled England in the last 10 overs. He picked three important middle-order wickets at a vital stage of the game to put a break on their run rate. The most important of them was Andrew Flintoff's for 22 off 20 balls. The Lancastrian going for a drive was caught at short extra cover by Dinesh Mongia after he was promoted three places in the batting order to no. 4. Yuvraj struck again twice in successive overs when he had Graham Thorpe caught at third man by Sehwag for 12, and England captain Nasser Hussain stumped by makeshift wicket-keeper Rahul Dravid as he came out of his crease for a big drive and missed the line. Hussain scored a sedate 54 off 82 balls with 3 fours and his dismissal saw England reduced to 222-5 in the 40th over. They lost three wickets for 21 runs in six overs, all to Yuvraj who finished with his best bowling in one-day internationals taking three for 39 off seven overs. Alec Stewart once more played the sheet-anchor role for England in a crisis batting through the rest of the overs to remain unbeaten on 28 and making sure that England had sufficient runs on the board to put India under pressure. Apart from Yuvraj, off spinner Harbhajan Singh bowled an extremely tight second spell conceding only 12 runs in his last five overs, after going for 38 in his first five. He conceded 15 runs in one over which included one wide that went for four and two reverse sweep fours by Hussain. Fast bowlers Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar were also tight not giving England the freedom to score many boundaries. England were given a great start by the in-form Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight who put on 86 off 82 balls. Left-hander Trescothick swept, pulled and drove his way to a superb half-century off 48 balls with six fours and was well on course for a century until he tried to run a ball from Ganguly to third man and nicked a catch to Dravid at 86. Trescothick faced 78 balls and hit nine fours and a six. Knight was the first dismissal when he was run out for 31 - beaten by Tendulkar's throw from square leg to the non-striker's end. Hussain had a 'life' at 18 when Dravid missed him off Ganguly, but although he hung around for 25 overs, he only played second fiddle to Trescothick in a second wicket stand of 67. Today India meet Sri Lanka in a day match at the Oval. England v India scoreboard LONDON, - Scoreboard at stumps in the triangular series one-day international between England and India at Lord's on Saturday: England Innings
M. Trescothick c Dravid b Ganguly 86
N. Knight `run out 31
N. Hussain st Dravid b Yuvraj 54
A. Flintoff c Mongia b Yuvraj 22
G. Thorpe c Sehwag b Yuvraj 12
A. Stewart not out 28
R. Irani run out 12
P. Collingwood c Dravid b Khan 6
A. Giles not out 2
Extras (b2, lb6, w8, nb2) 18
Total (7wkts, 50 overs) 271
Fall of wickets: 1-86, 2-153, 3-201, 4-217, 5-222,
6-256, 7-267
Did not bat: J. Kirtley, M. Hoggard
Bowling: Khan 9-0-48-1 (2w); Agarkar 8-0-49-0 (2nb)
Harbhajan 10-0-50-0 (1w); Kumble 10-0-46-0
Ganguly 6-0-31-1; Yuvraj 7-0-39-3
India Innings
S. Ganguly c Kirtley b Giles 43
V. Sehwag c Trescothick b Giles 71
D. Mongia b Giles 1
S. Tendulkar b Irani 1
R. Dravid not out 73
Yuvrag Singh not out 64
Extras (lb12, w3, nb4) 19
Total (4wkts, 48.5 overs) 272
Fall of wickets: 1-109, 2-111, 3-118, 4-141
Did not bat: M. Kaif, A. Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh,
A. Kumble, Z. Khan
Bowling: Hoggard 8.5-0-62-0(2nb,1w);Kirtley 10-0-57-0;
Flintoff 8-0-56-0(1nb); Giles10-1-39-3 (2w);
Irani 10-0-33-1; Collingwood 2-0-13-0;
Toss: England
Result: India won by 6wkts
Umpires: Steve Bucknor (WIs), Neil Mallender (Eng)
Third umpire: Jeremy Lloyds (Eng)
Match referee: Mike Procter (Rsa)
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