England Set India 241 For 3-0 Lead in Series

Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 1:31 pm

England Set India 241 For 3 0 Lead in Series Ishant Sharma struck twice after going haywire in his ninth over when he bowled two no-balls and then a wide that rushed to the fence. Then he dismissed Samit Patel and Matt Prior off consecutive deliveries in the 47th over. Zaheer then surprised Stuart Broad with a snorter and Dhoni did the rest.

Munaf Patel bowled the final over and rattled James Anderson’s furniture off the second last ball. England were, thus, bowled out for 240 setting India a score of 241 to attain a 3-0 lead in the seven match series.

Harbhajan was the star of the show picking up 3 wickets for 31 runs off his quota of 10 overs and also entering the ‘Club 200’ in ODIs in the process.

Singh had returned for his second spell and spelled doom for Owais Shah who was taking the charge for England. In an attempt to up the tempo, Shah, who had hit a four off the previous delivery, lofted one in the deep for Zaheer Khan. Owais Shah became Harbhajan’s 200th wicket in ODIs.

Big Freddie’s brief stint at the crease had come to an end when Yousuf Pathan caught him plumb in front of the wickets for a score of 26 runs. Flintoff’s dismissal meant half the English team was back in the pavilion with the scorecard reading 167 in the 37th over.

Samit Patel, who had replaced Flintoff at the crease, joined hands with Owais Shah to steer England past the 200 run mark and bail England out of trouble and save them from an embarrassment of being bowled out under 200; that too after coming to Kanpur with their backs to the wall.

Prior to that, Indian captain and wicketkeeper MS Dhoni showed his class behind the stumps as he collected a Yuvraj delivery and whipped the bails in a flash to give half centurion Ravi Bopara no chance to get back in the crease and thus sent him back on a long walk to the hut. Bopara became Dhoni’s third (1 ct, 2 st) victim of the day.

Soon after England had crossed the 100 run mark, Harbhajan Singh suffocated English captain Kevin Pietersen and the latter perished when he attempted a slog. Zaheer caught Pietersen for 13. He then bamboozled Paul Collingwood with a ‘doosra’ dragging him forward to give Dhoni an opportunity to prove his swiftness behind the stumps.

Earlier, Munaf Patel had provided the important breakthrough to India when he had the dangerous looking Ian Bell caught behind by MS Dhoni for 46 runs off 47 balls that was garnished with eight elegant fours. England had started the innings very slowly but later gathered pace to close in to a run rate of nearly six by the end of over 15.

Toss

England captain Kevin Pietersen won the toss and chose to bat first which meant India were fielding first for the first time in the series.

India had made a change in the side for the third ODI. RP Singh made way for Ishant Sharma. For England, spinner Greame Swann came in for Steve Harmison.

With India 2-0 up in the seven match series of the Hero Honda Cup, England would look to clip Indian wings, Yuvraj’s in particular, to come back in the tournament. If they fail to do so here at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, it would be too late for the visitors indeed

England Set India 241 For 3-0 Lead in Series

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