India stumble and fall at the Kotla

It's almost Pavlovian -- the minute we see dew on the deck, we go, ah, time to bowl. When all available evidence should have convinced us that never, ever, have we used such conditions well.

Faced with a belter of a batting track at the Firozeshah Kotla, Sourav Ganguly called right and opted to bowl, arguing that the first half hour will help the bowlers -- and that was the first of two mistakes that were going to cost India the game.

The second had been indicated the previous evening, when Ganguly said he would like to open the innings -- a comment that made no sense whatsoever. On the one hand, he was patently short of form. On the other, the Tendulkar-Sehwag partnership had looked like clicking into high gear. The only reason you could think of, for Ganguly to make the statement he did was that he was feeling threatened -- and if that is true, you get to hoping that he gets over that feeling and figures that with his big-hitting skills, he could be just the guy to give the middle order the momentum and spine it requires.

In the event, on seeing that England had piled up a sizeable score, Ganguly decided not to walk his own talk and dropped himself down to number three -- but even that proved too early in the order, and almost ended up costing dear.

India made one change -- Sarandeep Singh coming in for Harbhajan Singh. Since the latter had been bowling well in the last two games, the only way to explain the change is to figure that the selectors, knowing India had a 3-1 lead, decided to try out the other offie, which is fair enough.

England meanwhile had James Foster come back, Jeremy Snape go out with an illness, and Andrew Caddick finally get a chance to do more than trot out onto the ground carrying bottles of mineral water.

Ganguly inserted England -- and on a pitch that suggested 280 was a par score, the tourists made 271 thanks to a frenetic but short-lived burst from Marcus Trescothick, an ideal anchoring knock from Nick Knight and a Roman Candle of a knock by Andrew Flintoff.

Trescothick took off like someone had lighted a fire under him, with shots that didn't come off any copybook you ever saw. In the ninth over, one of Trescothick's charges down the track saw him get the ball high on his bat -- Kumble did his best to run back at wide mid on and get under the ball, but failed (England 31/0).

Trescothick finally fell in the 12th over, when yet another charge, this one at Agarkar, saw the batsman get too close to the ball to control the attempted hit over the covers. The ball went to mid off, and Sarandeep Singh did very well to pick up the catch as the ball died on him (Trescothick 35 off 40, England 51/1).

Nasser Hussain, at number three, led a charmed life. Ajay Ratra dropped an edge, then held on to one when Hussain tried to cut Tendulkar. Everyone heard the snick but the umpire, who ruled the batsman in. In the next over, he survived a very close LBW shout. Made you wonder, really, if Hussain at the end of the day's play would lodge yet another of his complaints about the umpiring -- it really was absysmal, the way he was twice given in when he was out, and he would be well within his rights to write a stinker to the ICC about it.

India however had its own share of trouble -- Sarandeep, to give him a name. Brought in with the field restrictions still in place, the offie went for 10 in his first over. He was pulled back, then brought back in the 16th over, and promptly went for 11 in his next two and had to be taken back off.

England, at 92/1 in 20 overs (119/1 in 25), had the makings of a platform in place. And Knight, who had started slowly off the blocks, was visibly moving up the gears, moving to his 18th ODI 50 in just 55 balls in a team score of 116/1.

Once Hussain was reprieved by the umpire, Knight really took charge, sweeping Ganguly for four, cover driving the same bowler for another boundary, tapping Kumble down to third man, late-cutting Sarandeep when the offie came in for his third spell -- it all began to look quite ominous.

The 36th over saw Hussain yet again cutting at Tendulkar. This time, Ratra held and more importantly, the umpire saw the nick and gave Hussain (49) out, ending a 117-run partnership with England on 168/2. This, incidentally, was England's first 100-plus association for any wicket in this series.

Flintoff was sent in to up the tempo. For the first ten minutes or so, the burly all-rounder seemed to be feeling his way (England 194/2 in 40). But he then crashed through the gears, taking 13 off a Tendulkar over to signal his intent. And from then on, he just kept getting better, setting himself and thumping the ball around with enormous force and conviction. The 50 of the partnership took just 44 deliveries and shortly thereafter, Knight got to his fourth ODI century, off 127 balls. Stats show that Knight is in the top ten ODI batsmen's list, if you look at those who have got over 2000 runs in the shorter form of the game -- this innings, with its calculated beginning and perfectly timed acceleration, showed why.

With Knight cruising and Flintoff mugging the bowlers, the overs 41-45 produced 50 runs, and England threatened to top the 290-mark with ease. But yet again, the death showed England's batting at its brittle worst. Knight heaved at a Srinath delivery in the 46th over, there was a stutter in the running and Agarkar did very well to field sharply and relay to the bowler, catching the England opener out of his ground (248/3).

At the other end, Flintoff raced to his 50 off just 36 deliveries. And then got his share of what Hussain would call dubious umpiring -- having taken a single, the batsman wandered out of his crease wondering about a second. Meanwhile, the throw came in and Ratra collected and whipped the bails off. The third umpire was called in. He looked at the same replays we did -- namely, the one that showed that Flintoff's boot was in the air, and not grounded behind the line, when the bails came off. And, strangely, pressed the green button instead of the red. It was razor sharp work by the young keeper, and deserved better.

In the next over, Flintoff aimed yet another slog at the straight boundary, off a Srinath slower ball, but mishit this one and picked out the man in the deep. Graham Thorpe, finding himself in the unfamiliar role of slogger, then lost his wicket playing all over a yorker, and England was pegged back to 271 -- a good 20 runs below what looked likely when Knight and Flintoff were going for broke.

Some sense prevailed in the Indian camp as Sehwag walked out with Tendulkar to open. England, meanwhile, had seen Gough and Hoggard creamed in the previous game, and opted this time to give the ball to Caddick and Flintoff.

Not that it made any difference -- the first ball of the innings was blasted through extra cover. The same shot was repeated four deliveries later, and one needed to look at the name printed on the shirt to realise the assassin was Sehwag, not Tendulkar.

From there on, matters merely got more frenetic, as Tendulkar joined the party and the fours peppered the boundaries on either side of the wicket. Just when it looked like England would yet again be bludgeoned into submission, Caddick struck against the run of play. To a delivery outside off, Tendulkar shaped to cut, the tall seamer had managed a bit of extra bounce on that one to defeat the shot and find the edge through to the keeper (Tendulkar 18/16 and India 53/1 at the end of six overs).

The pace, at that point, had been frenetic -- and the bowling entirely tamed. Caddick had gone for 26 in three, Flintoff for 27 in three (including 15 in his third over as Sehwag went ballistic).

And then it all went to pieces. Ganguly, coming in at number three, played out a maiden in the seventh over. The first ball of the 8th was a single to Sehwag, followed by five more dot balls as Ganguly kept prodding. The momentum changed in favour of England, with just nine coming off four overs as India made 62/1 at the end of 10 overs.

Sehwag was the sufferer. Halted in mid-gallop, he seemed to lose his edge as the run rate, 8.9 when Tendulkar departed, dropped to 6.09. An attempted drive on the up off Gough found Sehwag's edge (42 off 36) and India, at the end of 15 overs, had plodded to 76/2 -- 14 runs coming off overs 11-15.

A fine start had been completely wasted -- and India could have been further in trouble in the 19th over, when Ganguly (12 off 29 at that point, India 90/2) charged wildly at Michael Vaughan and missed, only for Foster to make a mess of a simple stumping.

98/2 in 20, India, meant that a mere 45 runs had been scored off 14 overs after Tendulkar's departure. India's 100 came up in the 21st over -- the first 50 of the innings taking 35 balls, the second 50 coming off 91 deliveries.

With the pressure building, Dinesh Mongia aimed a slashing drive at a ball from Flintoff wide of off stump, and got the edge through to the keeper (India 116/3 in 25, 19 off 49 at that point Ganguly).

It was in the 28th over, with the ball grown old and soft, that Ganguly finally came into his own, shimmying down the track with the ease of his glory days to blast Ashley Giles for a huge six over midwicket, then repeating the shot in the 30th over to take India to 148/3 (Ganguly 43 off 67). Giles' next over saw Ganguly make it three sizes in three overs, the third shot bringing up his 50 off 73 deliveries (Ganguly's 42nd 50, India 161/3). Giles, meanwhile, had gone for 32 in four overs.

At the other end, Kaif, then 23, was lucky when an attempted cut off a Collingwood delivery that stayed low took the edge, only for Foster to muff his second simple chance of the day. From that point on, Kaif dabbed and nurdled the ball around, using his foot speed to race between wickets, rotating strike well and holding his own in a partnership that gradually began to take the fight back to the bowling side.

Once Ganguly got his feet moving and found some range on his shots, the game turned on its axis. Kaif is at all times a very good runner between wickets, and here Ganguly too joined in, with pushes into the outfield and sprinted singles to keep the board ticking in between the big booming shots. The 100 of the partnership came at a run a ball.

England seemed to lose the plot, and its outcricket deteriorated even further. With the score just past 200 in the 38th over, India was sitting pretty (needing 68 more off 72 balls) when Kaif aimed a heave at Darren Gough. The ball sliced off the bat, and Michael Vaughan, sprinting in from a deeper position at mid off, got the ball in both hands and watched it pop out again.

Heading into the turn, India needed 61 off 60 deliveries. It also needed the two not out batsmen to steer the side home. Instead, the self-destruct button was pressed with a vengeance.

The first over of the slog phase turned things on its head. Hussain brought Ashley Giles back -- a dodgy move, if you go by what Ganguly did to him last time round. But the first ball of the 41st over saw the India skipper (74 off 95 balls) shimmy down looking to blast over the straight field. This time, however, he didn't get close enough to the ball, with the result that he failed to put legs under the shot and Owais Shah, on the line at mid off, held a well-judged catch.

Two deliveries later, Giles floated one up and Kaif, seemingly in a dream, pushed the ball straight to cover in a parody of a drive (46 off 64), ending a useful innings studded by two reprieves. India 212/5.

Giles, by now, was on a roll. A slanting delivery into the rough around the left-hander's off stump saw Badani reach into a drive and put it tamely back down the track for the bowler to hold. And almost immediately thereafter Ajay Ratra, who had got off the blocks in his usual busy fashion, went charging down the track, missed the floater completely, and Foster for once collected cleanly and took out the bails. Badani had, earlier, been dropped after failing to make use of his chances. His comeback game saw him display the talent he surely posseses -- but since then, he has shown the other, nervy, side of his game too often for comfort.

The rapid fall of wickets meant that at the end of 45 overs (227/7), India from being comfortably up in the run rate during the 30-38 over mark and heading into the turn needing just a run a ball, had slumped to a requirement of 45 more off 30 deliveries.

Giles decided to get full compensation for his earlier maltreatment. A full length floater had Kumble on his knee, swiping the air and losing his off stump in the 46th over to give the left-arm spinner an unlikely five-fer.

England's prodigality in the field continued when in the 48th over, Sarandeep Singh swung Gough around only for Flintoff, running around at deep backward square, to dive headlong but fail to cling on. And Agarkar rubbed it in off the last ball of the over when he smashed Gough to the straight fence for four (India 255/8, Agarkar 26 off 16, the ask 17 off 12).

Giles bowled the 49th -- and Agarkar got a measure of revenge for the wickets the left armer had taken, when he stepped away from the stumps and chopped a straight ball behind point for four, to reduce the ask to 12 off 9 balls.

Gough bowled the last over, with India needing 9 off six balls. And by dint of keeping the full length, ensured against any last minute heroics from Agarkar, nursemaiding England to a tight two-run victory. Agarkar blasted the last ball square on the off and a four would have tied it -- but good fielding kept it to two, and it was all over. England had pulled one back, to bring the series to 3-2 with one to play.

What can you say about this game? Two teams tried their damndest to lose. The team that tried that bit harder, lost -- I mean, surely it takes a positive genius to head into the straight needing a run a ball with 7 wickets in hand, and still lose?

Postscript: Meanwhile, will someone please tell Nasser Hussain to shut the heck up?

He's been cribbing about the umpiring -- today, he has good reason to crib, since he was given lives by the umpires twice, and Flintoff once. But that is not the point -- as per ICC guidelines, questioning an umpire's decision is dissent, no matter whether it is on the field of play or outside it, and Hussain has been demonstrably guilty of that offence twice in this series.

Secondly, he seems to imagine it is his birthright to argue vehemently each time the ball is changed. Maybe it is because England plays few ODIs -- therefore, the England captain is not aware that the ball is routinely changed after about 35 overs, once the white surface is marred by the green turf. To protest, and carry on, each single time is surely the outside of enough?

Hussain has been treated with respect at the start of this series -- but his negativity in the Tests, and downright churlishness in the one dayers, has lost him all that good feeling. Today, frankly, his on-field demeanour and off-field comments leave a very bad taste in the mouth.

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