Daily Cricket News

Bengaluru cliffhanger ends in a tie

Chasing a record 338-run total, England fought gallantly and shared honours with hosts India as the match ended in a tie. 

England skipper Andrew Strauss was the hero of the visitors' innings with a captain's knock of 158 off 145 balls, which set the tone of England's chase.

Strauss and makeshift England opener Kevin Pietersen came out with an aggressive intent to kick off England innings after their bowlers were hammered by Indian batsmen led by Sachin Tendulkar's 47th ODI century.

But a rollicking start by England openers was halted by Munaf Patel, who pulled out a stunning reflex catch off his own bowling to send back Pietersen (31).

However, Strauss went from strength to strength and remained uninhibited in his strokeplay to bring up his half century in company with Jonathan Trott, who could only muster 16 runs and fell lbw to Piyush Chawla.

MS Dhoni decided to use Chawla and Harbhajan Singh in tandem inside the bowling powerplay but the spin twins failed to make an impression on the proceedings as Strauss and Bell continued to get a boundary an over to keep England in the hunt.

Strauss brought up a stroke-filled century off just 99 balls to surprise India as England looked set to challenge the gigantic target.

But right when the 170-run stand looked to take the match away from India, Strauss chose to take the batting powerplay in which India took four wickets for just 25 runs.

That proved to be the turning point of the match as Zaheer Khan bowled a magnificent spell to dismiss 'Man of the Match' Strauss, Bell (69) and Paul Collingwood (1).

Wickets continued to tumble until Tim Bresnan (14) hit Chawla for two sixes to bring the match in balance; however, Chawla bowled him out in the same over.

Needing 14 runs off the last Munaf Patel over, Ajmal Shahzad hit a six out of nowhere to stun the crowd into silence. Two runs were needed from the last ball, off which Swann could hit only one run, which ended the match in a tie.

However, India's performance in the field and bowlers' failure to defend such a big total put serious question marks over India's 'favourites' tag in this World Cup. Even Zaheer Khan, who was the most successful Indian bowler with four wickets, went for 64 runs.

Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla took two wickets each but gave away 70 and 71 runs respectively.

In the field, beside a number of slip-ups, Harbhajan dropped a half chance to dismiss Strauss early in his innings and Virat Kohli dropped Bell in the slips. Harbhajan returned with one wicket for 58 runs.

England were powerless to stop Sachin Tendulkar piling up his fifth ICC Cricket World Cup hundred in India's mammoth 338 all out at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Tendulkar (120) lost his dangerous opening partner Virender Sehwag relatively early to Tim Bresnan (five for 48) but then shared stands of 134 with number three Gautam Gambhir (51) and 56 for the third wicket with Yuvraj Singh (58).

India's master batsman brought up a series of personal and team landmarks with sixes on the way to his 98th international hundred, creating the impression he was able to clear the ropes almost at will.

But he had to settle for an eighth four, deflected off his hip to fine-leg off Bresnan, with which to complete his 47th one-day international hundred from the 103rd ball he faced.

By the time he was finished, chipping a leading edge to cover off James Anderson, Tendulkar had 10 fours and five sixes in an already daunting total after India had won the toss in this day-night Group B fixture.

His innings, at a compact venue which simply could not contain his strokeplay, was full of the expert wristy placement and clean timing which has made Tendulkar unarguably one of his sport's all-time greats.

Among England's sufferers, Anderson fared appreciably the worst - recording England's most expensive World Cup figures of 9.5-0-91-1, in the biggest total they have conceded in any edition of this tournament.

With Stuart Broad unavailable, back at the team hotel because of a stomach upset, Anderson endured a morale-sapping first over.

He might have had Sehwag three times, as the opener somehow chipped and edged unconvincing shots just out of the fielders' reach.

Instead, Anderson conceded eight wicketless runs. India were immediately off to a flier, and the omens were bad for England from the outset.

Sehwag continued with his instinctive aggression until Bresnan, in his first over after replacing Ajmal Shahzad at the north end, got the breakthrough.

Sehwag tried to guide a little width from a short ball down to third-man but did not get quite enough bat on it and was well-caught by a diving Matt Prior.

Prior could get his gloves nowhere near a half-chance for a catch when the advancing Gambhir, on 14, edged one from Swann that went quickly on with the arm and resulted in four lucky runs to fine-leg.

But the impressive Bresnan then distinguished himself by bowling a maiden to Tendulkar as England all too briefly exerted a modicum of control.

The second-wicket stand, the highest on this ground, was largely unblemished - broken only when Graeme Swann found sharp turn from a good length to defeat Gambhir's attempted steer and disturb the off bail.

Thanks to Tendulkar's departure, India lost a little momentum as the batting powerplay brought only 32 runs.

But the respite did not last long for England, until Bresnan hit back with three late scalps in four balls to finish with a maiden five-wicket haul on the day before his 26th birthday - and then India were bowled out one delivery short of their entitlement thanks to two run-outs in the 50th over.

Even so, Yuvraj had added his team's third half-century from only 46 balls and shared a stand of 69 with his   captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to help plunder 91 in a hectic last 10 overs.