Sehwag and Tendulkar won us
the game: Ganguly

India captain Sourav Ganguly gave credit to openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag for his team's victory in the fourth one-dayer against England after their explosive 134-run stand.

Set 218 to win in 39-overs in the rain-curtailed match, India overhauled the target in just 29.4 overs, with Tendulkar unbeaten on 87 after Sehwag hammered a 62-ball 82.

"The openers won the game for us today," Ganguly told reporters later. "Sehwag was just unstoppable. He's a top-class player and I wanted him to get a 100 today.

"Sachin, of course, is a great player. We'll have to see in the next match in Delhi if we should keep them as openers."

Tendulkar also became the first player in one-day history to score more than 11,000 runs on Monday.

Ganguly is Tendulkar's regular opening partner and the two have shared the most century stands in one-day history.

But Sehwag had also been successful on the two occasions before Monday that he had opened -- against New Zealand at Colombo last year, when he scored a 69-ball century, and in Madras last week, when he scored 51 in India's four-wicket win.

"I'm sure he'll be a great entertainer for the fans of the game," Ganguly said.

Sehwag, 24, who looks up to Tendulkar as his mentor, was disappointed after missing out on a good chance to score his hundred.

"I was going for the century, it was on my mind," he said.

"Sachin is my role model and I copy his shots. He was telling me when we were batting, that I should change gear a little bit and go for the hundred.

"I don't regret my shot though, it would have been four if I had cleared the fielder," he added.

Sehwag was out driving Paul Collingwood's medium-pace straight to Matthew Hoggard at mid-on.

Captain Nasser Hussain said his side had been "battered" as they fell behind 3-1 in the six-match series.

"The way India were playing, even 250-260 would have been a very ordinary target despite it being a 39-over game," he said.

"We are very disappointed. We played okay in the first few overs and then we just didn't get into the game."

MIDDLE-ORDER COLLAPSE

Opener Nick Knight led England's initial charge with a blistering 74 but the middle-order collapsed after that.

"We need people to score runs down the order, that's just not happening," said Hussain. "We need some big-hitters, can't have five Graham Thorpes in the team."

Thorpe, who was playing his first game of the series, scored 36 off 41 balls but could not accelerate the scoring rate in the later overs.

But Hussain said he was not too demoralised by the margin of defeat.

"They are a very fine team. When we first arrived in India for the test matches last month, everyone had expected us to lose easily," he said.

"People started thinking we'll do okay after a good show in the two drawn tests and the first three one-dayers, but they've shown today that they can be a great side at home."

England's tour of India : Complete coverage

Mail Cricket Editor