Sunday, 27 February 2011 22:44
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Breaking News! In a sensational game of cricket at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, India and England held their nerves and played a tie. Both teams shared one point each. This is the fourth tie match in the World Cup history.  Earlier, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Sachin Tendulkar led from the front and scored his 47th ODI ton and fifth in World Cup - a record. India bowled out for 338 in 49.5 overs.Tendulkar was the top scorer with 120, while Gambhir made 51. Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni contributed 58 and 31. Sehwag scored 35. ForEngland, Bresnan took five wickets. Skipper Andrew Strauss led from the front with a memorable knock of 158 off 145 balls - his highest individual ODI score and the highest score for any England captain in World Cup history. Strauss was dropped by Harbhajan while he was batting on just 20. That catch proved too costly for India in the end. To make matters worse, Kohli dropped Ian Bell at a crucial juncture of the game. The match witnessed high drama in the middle, when umpire Billy Bowden ruled Ian Bell not out off Yuvraj Singh's delivery. Dhoni appealed against the decision. The hawk eye showed Bell was clearly out LBW. He started walking. But the third umpire ruled in his favour after going through the rule book and ruled him not out. Strauss and Ian Bell added 170 runs for the third wicket. England were cruising towards victory when they were 281/2 in 42.3 overs. However, Zaheer dealt a double blow by removing Bell (69) and Strauss (158) in two successive balls and brought India back into the game.  Zaheer struck again by removing Paul Collingwood, while Harbhajan took the wicket of Matt Prior to leave England stranded at 289/6 in 45.2 overs.England could score just 24 runs in the batting powerplay, while they lost four crucial wickets.England were down, but not out. They were 307/7 in 47.3 overs and the match was almost beyond their reach. They needed 29 runs from two overs. However, in Chawla's last over (49th), Swann and Bresnan hit a six each and collected 15 runs. England now needed 14 runs from the last over. Ajmal Shahzad changed the equation completely with a six off Munaf Patel. England needed 5 runs from three balls, but they scored four runs and the match ended in a tie. England finished 338/8 in 50 overs. For India, Zaheer took three wickets, while Munaf and Chawla took two wickets each. Andrew Strauss was declared "Man of the Match". Courtesy: Breaking News Online Team |
