The glorious game of cricket was the ultimate victor at the end of a pulsating encounter between the Men In Blue and indomitable English Lions that enthralled more than 40,000+ spectators physically present at Bengaluru's M.Chinnaswamy Stadium and millions more who had the privilege of watching the spectacle as it unfolded on the television screens in their living or lounge rooms.
The reaction of the English captain Andrew Strauss who almost single handedly piloted his team to a memorable victory with an epochal 158 of 145 balls encapsulated the spirit and end result of the match: "We're happy and devastated at the same time, but privileged to participate/play in game like this." It indeed was a game that had it all: ebbs, flows, depths of despair, heights of ecstacy, scintillating strokeplay, a record making and an almost record breaking century, fielding bloopers galore, soaring sixes and scorching boundaries, wickets falling in a heap during the end overs of both innings and last but not the least a dream result i.e. the fourth tie in the history of One Day International Cricket since its inception.
The Indian innings was built around the individual brilliance of one Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar who sent the crowds into raptures with an unparalleled knock of 120 from 115 balls studded with 10 exquisite boundary hits and 5 sixes which cleared the boundary ropes with consummate ease, this incidentally was his 47th ODI century, 98th international hundred, fifth world cup hundred in his sixth world cup, Sachin also notched up the honour of becoming the batsman with the maximum number of centuries in the World Cup surpassing his opening partner and close friend Sourav Ganguly. Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh to did contribute their mite towards India's ultimate total of 338 from 49.5 overs, which one felt was atleast 25 short of where they should have been after having been 4/305 at the beginning of the 46th over of their innings however an inspired spell of fast medium bowling from the tall and strapping Tim Bresnan who accounted for the wickets of Yuvraj,Dhoni and Harbhajan in one over put paid to their hopes of amassing a 350 plus total.
Bresnan's sterling effort of 5/48 from his allotted quota of 10 overs stood out like a beacon in an otherwise uniformly dismal English team bowling analysis sheet, their pace bowling spearhead James Anderson conceded 91 runs from 9.5 overs, Ajmal Shehzaad who replace Stuart Broad at the eleventh hour went for 53 from his eight overs, their so called trumpcard and so called best off spinner in the world, Graeme Swann went for 59 of his 9 overs and the ungainly looking Michael Yardy who certainly did have his moments of glory but did go under the cosh in his last two overs ultimately ended up conceding 64 runs from his allotment of 10 overs.
While everybody present at the stadium might be forgiven for thinking that the English batsmen would simply crumble at the prospect of chasing down an improbable 339 run total, the Englishmen were certainly made of sterner stuff and displayed their resolve and intent of making a match of it through a 68 run opening partnership between Kevin Petersen and their conquering hero Andrew Strauss in double quick time before Munaf Patel pulled off a miraculous return catch to signal Petersen's demise. The Englishmen continued on their merry ways despite the early loss of Trott who was palpably in fron to a Piyush Chawla wrong 'un.
The advent of Ian Bell at the crease did only serve to fire up the marauding Andrew Strauss and the dynamic duo did almost carry their team to the threshhold of victory with an enterprising 170 run partnership. The sultry atmosphere and cramping of Ian Bell's hands and leg muscles did certainly contribute their mite towards Strauss's inexplicable decision of taking the English batting powerplay at the beginning of the 43rd over of their chase as Bell would have better served continuing his innings with the help of a runner.
While such are the vagaries or glorious uncertainities of this glorious game of cricket, Dhoni was left with no other recourse apart from turning to his pace bowling spearhead Zaheer Khan who delivered and how. A rejuvenated and fired up Zaheer Khan first accounted for the impressive Bell who fell in an ill advised attempt to clear the mid off fielder within the circle and only ended up skying the ball into the hands of an ecstatic Virat Kohli. Strauss in turn had no answer to an inswinging Zaheer toe crusher that struck him on his back boot right in front of the middle stump thereby signalling the end of an innings that will be remembered by one and all privileged to witness it for many a year to come.
Zaheer's double strike did certainly provide the much needed fillip to a floundering Indian bowling and fielding effort and the bowlers and fielders were certainly on their toes sensing this to be their best chance of pulling off an improbable victory from the jaws of defeat, but a calculated assault on Piyush Chawla in the penultimate over of the innings (49th) by Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann all but dashed the Indian teams victory hopes. England began the 49th over of their innings requiring 29 to win of the last two overs.
A six each from the bludgeoning blades of Bresnan and Swann did certainly dent Indian hopes and pride though Chawla got his own back by castling Bresnan on the sixth and last ball of his over and spell. Chawla however ended up concedxing a massive 15 runs from his over leaving England with the improbable target of 14 from the last over, Swann scrambled a brace of the first delivery of the 50th over bowled by Munaf Patel and eked out a single of the second, the new arrival at the crease Ajmal Shehzaad however had other plans and deposited Munaf's third delivery into the stands beyond the long on boundary thereby leaving his team with the task of getting 5 off the last three deliveries of the match, the fourth ball of the over yielded another brace, while the fifth and sixth went only for singles leaving the scores tied when the umpires called time at the end of the fiftieth over.
The English who were called a bunch of no hopers and only given a 20% chance of upsetting the Indian applecart did everything but achieve the impossible and certainly did end up with the bragging rights at the end of a pulsating day's cricket. As for the Indians, it is back to the drawing board for them with numerous debates about team composition, batting order and drastic improvement in both the bowling and fielding efforts being the subject of many an intense discussion within the echelons of the team management.
SUNDEEP CHOPRA.
The reaction of the English captain Andrew Strauss who almost single handedly piloted his team to a memorable victory with an epochal 158 of 145 balls encapsulated the spirit and end result of the match: "We're happy and devastated at the same time, but privileged to participate/play in game like this." It indeed was a game that had it all: ebbs, flows, depths of despair, heights of ecstacy, scintillating strokeplay, a record making and an almost record breaking century, fielding bloopers galore, soaring sixes and scorching boundaries, wickets falling in a heap during the end overs of both innings and last but not the least a dream result i.e. the fourth tie in the history of One Day International Cricket since its inception.
The Indian innings was built around the individual brilliance of one Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar who sent the crowds into raptures with an unparalleled knock of 120 from 115 balls studded with 10 exquisite boundary hits and 5 sixes which cleared the boundary ropes with consummate ease, this incidentally was his 47th ODI century, 98th international hundred, fifth world cup hundred in his sixth world cup, Sachin also notched up the honour of becoming the batsman with the maximum number of centuries in the World Cup surpassing his opening partner and close friend Sourav Ganguly. Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh to did contribute their mite towards India's ultimate total of 338 from 49.5 overs, which one felt was atleast 25 short of where they should have been after having been 4/305 at the beginning of the 46th over of their innings however an inspired spell of fast medium bowling from the tall and strapping Tim Bresnan who accounted for the wickets of Yuvraj,Dhoni and Harbhajan in one over put paid to their hopes of amassing a 350 plus total.
Bresnan's sterling effort of 5/48 from his allotted quota of 10 overs stood out like a beacon in an otherwise uniformly dismal English team bowling analysis sheet, their pace bowling spearhead James Anderson conceded 91 runs from 9.5 overs, Ajmal Shehzaad who replace Stuart Broad at the eleventh hour went for 53 from his eight overs, their so called trumpcard and so called best off spinner in the world, Graeme Swann went for 59 of his 9 overs and the ungainly looking Michael Yardy who certainly did have his moments of glory but did go under the cosh in his last two overs ultimately ended up conceding 64 runs from his allotment of 10 overs.
While everybody present at the stadium might be forgiven for thinking that the English batsmen would simply crumble at the prospect of chasing down an improbable 339 run total, the Englishmen were certainly made of sterner stuff and displayed their resolve and intent of making a match of it through a 68 run opening partnership between Kevin Petersen and their conquering hero Andrew Strauss in double quick time before Munaf Patel pulled off a miraculous return catch to signal Petersen's demise. The Englishmen continued on their merry ways despite the early loss of Trott who was palpably in fron to a Piyush Chawla wrong 'un.
The advent of Ian Bell at the crease did only serve to fire up the marauding Andrew Strauss and the dynamic duo did almost carry their team to the threshhold of victory with an enterprising 170 run partnership. The sultry atmosphere and cramping of Ian Bell's hands and leg muscles did certainly contribute their mite towards Strauss's inexplicable decision of taking the English batting powerplay at the beginning of the 43rd over of their chase as Bell would have better served continuing his innings with the help of a runner.
While such are the vagaries or glorious uncertainities of this glorious game of cricket, Dhoni was left with no other recourse apart from turning to his pace bowling spearhead Zaheer Khan who delivered and how. A rejuvenated and fired up Zaheer Khan first accounted for the impressive Bell who fell in an ill advised attempt to clear the mid off fielder within the circle and only ended up skying the ball into the hands of an ecstatic Virat Kohli. Strauss in turn had no answer to an inswinging Zaheer toe crusher that struck him on his back boot right in front of the middle stump thereby signalling the end of an innings that will be remembered by one and all privileged to witness it for many a year to come.
Zaheer's double strike did certainly provide the much needed fillip to a floundering Indian bowling and fielding effort and the bowlers and fielders were certainly on their toes sensing this to be their best chance of pulling off an improbable victory from the jaws of defeat, but a calculated assault on Piyush Chawla in the penultimate over of the innings (49th) by Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann all but dashed the Indian teams victory hopes. England began the 49th over of their innings requiring 29 to win of the last two overs.
A six each from the bludgeoning blades of Bresnan and Swann did certainly dent Indian hopes and pride though Chawla got his own back by castling Bresnan on the sixth and last ball of his over and spell. Chawla however ended up concedxing a massive 15 runs from his over leaving England with the improbable target of 14 from the last over, Swann scrambled a brace of the first delivery of the 50th over bowled by Munaf Patel and eked out a single of the second, the new arrival at the crease Ajmal Shehzaad however had other plans and deposited Munaf's third delivery into the stands beyond the long on boundary thereby leaving his team with the task of getting 5 off the last three deliveries of the match, the fourth ball of the over yielded another brace, while the fifth and sixth went only for singles leaving the scores tied when the umpires called time at the end of the fiftieth over.
The English who were called a bunch of no hopers and only given a 20% chance of upsetting the Indian applecart did everything but achieve the impossible and certainly did end up with the bragging rights at the end of a pulsating day's cricket. As for the Indians, it is back to the drawing board for them with numerous debates about team composition, batting order and drastic improvement in both the bowling and fielding efforts being the subject of many an intense discussion within the echelons of the team management.
SUNDEEP CHOPRA.
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