On an evening that simply beggared belief, England tied with India in an incredible finale in Bangalore. Andrew Strauss was England's inspiration, producing an extraordinary 158 from 145 balls, the highest score by an English batsman in World Cup history, as England set off in pursuit of a vast 339 for victory, following a brilliant 120 from India's legend Sachin Tendulkar.25 overs England 163 for 2 (Strauss 92*, Bell 17*) need another 176 runs to beat India 338 (Tendulkar 120, Bresnan 5-48)
Andrew Strauss led from the front in another daunting run-chase, compiling a captain's innings of 92 from 90 balls to follow up his agenda-setting 88 against the Netherlands last week, as England pointed themselves in the right direction in pursuit of India's massive target of 339 at Bangalore. Strauss added 68 for the first wicket with Kevin Pietersen, who fell for 31 to a freakish caught-and-bowled from Munaf Patel, and though Jonathan Trott was pinned lbw for 16 by the legspinner Piyush Chawla, England's score at the halfway mark remained a creditable 163 for 2.
However, Ian Bell might well have been dismissed on 17 from the very last ball of the 25th over, when Yuvraj Singh went up for an lbw appeal as Bell attempted and missed a sweep. Though India's subsequent review suggested he was out, with the ball pitching inside the line of off stump, and the Hawkeye replay showing the stumps being broken, umpire Billy Bowden upheld his original verdict, because Bell had come down the wicket by more than 2.5 metres before the moment of impact. It was a controversial ruling, albeit one written into the ICC's playing conditions, and it was one that could yet prove significant.
A positive start was a pre-requisite as England set off in pursuit of what, if successful, would be the fourth-highest in ODI history, and Strauss responded in the perfect fashion when Zaheer Khan, armed with the new ball, strayed onto his pads first-up to gift a flicked four through fine leg. Later in the same over he doubled his tally with a punched square drive, and when Munaf followed a first-ball appeal against Pietersen with a second-ball half-tracker, England were properly up and running.
Strauss had his moments of luck, particularly on 17 when TV replays suggested he had nicked a drive against Zaheer that the Indian fielders were unable to hear against the din of the crowd. Five runs later, he miscued a pull that flew just out of reach of Harbhajan Singh at mid-on, but for the most part he was rewarded for his intent and aggression, and by the end of the batting Powerplay, England were 19 runs to the good, on 77 for 1, compared to India's 10-over total of 58 for 1.
Pietersen was barely less impressive in his short stay, as he pounded four fours in eight Zaheer deliveries including an arrow-straight drive that whistled past the stumps at the non-striker's end. His dismissal when it came was extraordinary, as Munaf was dumped on his backside by a brutally struck drive, only for the ball he had parried from in front of his face to plop into his right hand as he glanced up to regain his bearings.
Trott got off the mark with a crisp drive for three to extra cover, and proved an able ally in a 43-run stand for the second wicket, nudging eight singles to keep the strike rotating, while dragging Harbhajan through midwicket to pick off his solitary boundary. But Chawla, who took a while to locate the perfect length, beat him all ends up with one that hurried on, and he was already walking before umpire Bowden raised his crooked finger.
Bell, England's best player of spin, was beaten twice in two balls as Chawla ripped first his googly then his legspinner to perfection. But faced with an asking rate of roughly six an over, he took over Trott's supporting role while Strauss continued to make the running for England, with Chawla and Yuvraj Singh both dispatched through the leg-side, while Harbhajan was driven inside-out through extra cover in a rare show of flamboyance that might equally have been a case of being beaten in flight. Either way, England remained very much in the game, and the Bangalore crowd was awaiting an excuse to rediscover its voice.
The batting Powerplay yielded 32 runs in five overs, and though Yuvraj kept up the tempo with nine fours in a 50-ball 58, he became the first victim of the collapse, when he holed out to deep midwicket to give Michael Yardy a wicket from the last ball of his spell. That set the stage for Bresnan to embark on a superb spell of death bowling to scalp his first five-wicket haul, and the best by an England seamer in World Cup history.
The first of Bresnan's victims - one ball later - was Dhoni, who sized up the midwicket boundary but picked out the substitute Luke Wright, before Yusuf Pathan, Virat Kohli and Harbhajan Singh were all dispatched in the space of four deliveries, courtesy of a slower ball and two yorkers. Consecutive run-outs then followed in Anderson's final over, but not before he had been filleted for 91 in 9.5 overs, the most expensive English analysis in World Cup history.
The omens for England had not been exactly positive going into the start of this match. Eleven defeats in their last 12 away matches against India underlined their status of underdogs, as did the two team's respective performances in their opening fixtures of the tournament - England's laboured victory over the Netherlands compared distinctly unfavourably to India's crunching win against Bangladesh in Dhaka, and when Stuart Broad, their best and most aggressive seamer, was ruled out with a stomach complaint before the start of the match, a vast swathe of England's gameplan went down with him.
Nevertheless, the opening exchanges were extraordinary. Sehwag, fresh from last week's brutal 175 against Bangladesh, faced up to Anderson, whose ten overs had disappeared for 72 against the Netherlands, and might have been dismissed three times in five balls. Anderson's first delivery was a full-length outswinger that a flat-footed Sehwag flashed past a diving Swann at second slip; his third zipped off a leading edge and looped over Ian Bell at cover, and the fifth lollipopped back down the track and just out of Anderson's reach in his followthrough.
With the stable door already ajar, the horse was set to bolt when a nervy Shahzad conceded two more boundaries in his first over, but England to their credit tightened their lines and made the early breakthrough courtesy of Bresnan, who lured Sehwag into a cute dink that nestled comfortably in Matt Prior's outstretched right glove. The Chinnaswamy Stadium immediately descended into the sort of silence that Graeme Swann had declared before the match was his favourite sound in the world.
Swann had a chance to extend that silence in his second over when Gambhir, emboldened by a sashay down the track that had resulted in a sumptuous four over long-off, tried the same stroke again, but inside-edged at a catchable height past Prior's gloves, and away for four. But while Gambhir's overt aggression diverted England's attention, Tendulkar's stealthier approach began to reap its rewards. He had reached 28 from 47 balls before he signalled to the dressing room that it was time for a heavier bat, and having belted Swann back over his head for four, he turned his attentions to the offcutters of Paul Collingwood, who joined the attack as England's fifth bowler in the 18th over of the innings, and was cracked for two Tendulkar sixes in the space of three overs.
If that got the crowd's juices flowing, then Tendulkar's double whammy against Swann - a pair of massive mows over the leg-side - tipped the entire stadium into ecstasy. He followed up with a sweet uppercut off Shahzad, teasing third man who had been dragged too fine in the previous over, and then further denuded Anderson's figures with consecutive off-side fours - the first of which was a trademark turf-scorching cover-drive.
Anderson's day did not improve when Gambhir inside-edged a flash through fine leg to reach his half-century from 59 balls, and though he eventually fell to a lazy poke at Swann two balls later, the manner of his departure would not exactly have given England much cheer. A sharp tweaker turned past the edge to clip the top of off, to give India's spin twins, Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, as much food for thought as England's batsmen. There's only one way back into this match for England now, and it's a mighty steep climb with a precipice either side.
India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Munaf Patel.
England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Kevin Pietersen, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Ian Bell, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Matt Prior (wk), 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 Mike Yardy, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Ajmal Shahzad.
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