Yousuf Pathan Scalps Freddie Flintoff; England five Down

Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Big Freddie’s brief stint at the crease came 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.

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.

Haze at the stadium had delayed the start of the match and is expected to start at 0945 IST. The game was also reduced to 49 overs due to the delayed start.

Teams:

England (Playing XI) - Ian Bell, Matthew Prior(w), Owais Shah, Kevin Pietersen(c), Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Samit Patel, Ravinder Bopara, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

India (Playing XI) - Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w/c), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel

Yousuf Pathan Scalps Freddie Flintoff; England five Down

From World:

Todays news from Sports News

Advertisement

Email Subscription

Advertisement