kdsingh80 Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/engine/current/match/433568.html India 338 (Tendulkar 120, Bresnan 5-48) tied with England 338 for 8 (Strauss 158, Bell 69, Zaheer 3-64) Scorecard and ball-by-ball details 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 threatened the unthinkable, and set off in full pursuit of India's seemingly unobtainable total of 338 - a score that had been made possible by a brilliant 120 from Sachin Tendulkar. Such was the clarity of Strauss's strokeplay and the passivity of India's attack, at 280 for 2 in the 43rd over, England were cruising towards an extraordinary triumph. However a late intervention, sparked by a reverse-swinging Zaheer Khan, left them clawing for breath as a silenced Chinnaswamy stadium rediscovered its roar, and when the requirement shot up to two runs a ball, there seemed no way back into the contest. However, a ballsy volley of sixes from England's lower order hauled them back from the brink, and with two runs needed from the final delivery of the match, Graeme Swann drilled Munaf Patel to cover to salvage a share of the spoils. The breathless finale was entirely in keeping with a contest that twisted and turned like an insomniac in a mosquito-pit. From the first over of the match, in which Virender Sehwag might have been dismissed three times in five balls, through the sumptuous strokeplay of first Tendulkar and later Strauss, and on through a pair of batting collapses - one apiece for the lower order of both teams - there was scarcely a moment in which normal service was permitted. Tim Bresnan, with 5 for 48 in ten unrelentingly composed overs, was the unsung star of a day that deserves to be remembered as the finest World Cup contest since that semi-final in 1999. For the first 39 overs of the match, and again for the last seven, the Bangalore crowd stadium was as raucous as a monsoon wedding, as Tendulkar ignited India's first home fixture of the World Cup with his 47th ODI century, before Zaheer Khan hauled them back from the brink of ignominy with 2 for 11 in his final three-over spell. But in between whiles, the game belonged to England, as India shipped their last seven wickets in 25 balls to let their opponents regain a toe-hold in the contest, before turning the stage over to Strauss and his magnum opus. A positive start was a pre-requisite as England embarked on their second daunting chase in as many matches, and just as Strauss had soothed his team's anxieties with 88 from 83 balls after their flirtation with humiliation against the Dutch, he was once again in the thick of things right from the start of the innings. Zaheer, who was as poor with the new ball as he was devastating with the old, bowled both sides of the wicket to gift two boundaries in six balls, and Strauss was up and running. He barely dipped below a run a ball at any subsequent stage of his innings. Full report to follow 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. 49.5 overs India 338 (Tendulkar 120, Bresnan 5-48) v England Sachin Tendulkar launched his innings in ominous style © Getty Images Enlarge Sachin Tendulkar produced the performance that every man in his nation had prayed was in his grasp, as India's batsmen ignited their first home fixture of the 2011 World Cup with a towering display against England at Bangalore. On a sporty wicket that offered assistance to the bowlers but value for every stroke, they pillaged 35 fours and seven sixes in an imposing total of 338, with Tendulkar standing supreme with 120 from 115 balls, his 47th ODI century, and his fifth in six World Cup campaigns. A late collapse, instigated by the tireless Tim Bresnan, saved England's blushes a touch as they scalped seven wickets in 25 balls, but it will take a superhuman effort under the floodlights to win this game now. Even by Tendulkar's matchless standards, his was a vintage performance, and a masterful example of how to pace an innings. He was a casual bystander in the day's opening exchanges, as Virender Sehwag swiped England's early bid for momentum with an audacious but chancy 35 from 26 balls, but he picked up his tempo throughout a second-wicket stand of 134 with Gautam Gambhir, without ever needing to take risks to make his mark. The high point of his innings came when he belted consecutive sixes at the start of Graeme Swann's second spell, a calculated show of class that undermined England's trump bowler, and left Andrew Strauss floundering for alternatives as his tactics were picked apart. In all Tendulkar stroked 10 fours and five sixes in what was, somewhat curiously, his first one-day hundred against England for nine years. By the time he was dismissed with 11 overs of the innings remaining, caught off a leading edge at cover (to give the labouring James Anderson his first one-day wicket in India for 53 overs dating back to 2006), India's total stood at an imposing 236 for 3, and it was a measure both of Tendulkar's brilliance and of England's dogged refusal to give in, that Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni were unable to cut loose to quite the extent they might have expected. 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. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSD1 Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Cricket should be banned. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted February 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Cricket should be banned. LOL Why? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSD1 Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 LOL Why? Evil colonial sport. Its also a bit effeminate. Punjabis should do table tennis, basketball, soccer, etc. Not rubbish like cricket. Who's with me on this? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted February 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Evil colonial sport. Its also a bit effeminate. Punjabis should do table tennis, basketball, soccer, etc. Not rubbish like cricket. Who's with me on this? effiminate? and table tennis is macho .BTW do you know fast bowling is very difficult and Physically most demanding.Only Pakistani's have mastered this art in ASia majority of sikhs just become spinners because their body don't support fast bowling. Also soccer,basketball are also colonial sports 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSD1 Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Soccer and basketball are world sports now, they dont embody colonialism as much as cricket does. The fact that so many indian youth waste their time playing this sport just reflects what is wrong with the country (it's love of being abused and acceptance of foreign influences). The fact that pakistani men with their long shiny shampooed hair are the manliest cricketeers around just says it all. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Soccer and basketball are world sports now, they dont embody colonialism as much as cricket does. Similarly Cricket is very popular sport now in South Asia.Infact it is the Englishmen who have abandoned Cricket. The fact that so many indian youth waste their time playing this sport just reflects what is wrong with the country (it's love of being abused and acceptance of foreign influences). Cricket is also popular in Pakistan ,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh too.The shorter version of game is also getting popular in other countries too.Just because people love cricket it does not mean that something is wrong with them The fact that pakistani men with their long shiny shampooed hair are the manliest cricketeers around just says it all. Seriously Which Pakistani man you are talking about .Majority of them keep their hair short like others. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyhp32 Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 (edited) Why are you supporting India at all? Don't you know how many Sikhs India has killed? Edited February 28, 2011 by tonyhp32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 (edited) duplicate Edited February 28, 2011 by kdsingh80 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdsingh80 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Why are you supporting India at all? Don't you know how many Sikhs India has killed? What Team India has to do with the killing of Sikhs? Harbhajan and Yuvraj plays for team India , do you want me cheer for for their opponents.BTW I just like the game of cricket and not a crazy Indian team supporter.If it wins then its O.K O/W I start supporting other teams which I like. BTW Could you Please tell me why so many sikhs come to support team India in England especially when the match is played in Birmingham.In 2009 When in T20 world cup England knocked India out then large number of Indian fans which had large proportion of sikhs booed at england though the local boy Ravi bopara was playing for England 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSD1 Posted March 5, 2011 Report Share Posted March 5, 2011 (edited) Seriously Which Pakistani man you are talking about .Majority of them keep their hair short like others. I heard he may end up working for L'Oreal's Lahore office after the case is settled. BTW Could you Please tell me why so many sikhs come to support team India in England especially when the match is played in Birmingham.In 2009 When in T20 world cup England knocked India out then large number of Indian fans which had large proportion of sikhs booed at england though the local boy Ravi bopara was playing for England Brummies tend to be a bit messed up in the head at the best of times. Just because people love cricket it does not mean that something is wrong with them If you say so. Edited March 5, 2011 by HSD 2 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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