Cuttack ODI: England hopes crushed again

Chasing 271 was never as easy as the Indians eventually made it seem; in fact, England kept themselves in the hunt despite a 136-run opening partnership between Sehwag (91 off 73 balls) and Sachin Tendulkar (50 off 57 balls).

Sehwag pounded the wayward pacers around the park with utter disdain even as Tendulkar looked edgy once again. Already among the runs in the series, the Delhi plunderer peppered the regions square of the wicket with trademark punches, the highlight of his innings being a 21-run Swann over.

He was unlucky to be adjudged leg-before to a Stuart Broad delivery that looked to be sneaking down leg and there were some mid-innings jitters as India went from 136 for no loss to 156 for three. But Mahendra Singh Dhoni (50 off 61 balls) and Suresh Raina (53 off 53 balls) kept their heads to carve out another comfortable win.

Skipper’s knock

Earlier in the day, Pietersen finally made his presence felt in the series. His 111-run unbeaten knock off 128 balls, and in-form Owais Shah’s 57-ball 66, ensured England posted a decent total for the first time this series, ending their 50 overs at 270 for four. Pietersen’s was not the quickest of innings given the conditions and the time he spent at the crease, but with the seven-match one-day series already lost, he at least gave his team a chance to pick up their first win on what has so far been an arduous Indian tour.

Dhoni won the toss and put England in first for fear of handling the soggy ball in the late-evening dew. Zaheer Khan made the first breakthrough in the sixth over, dismissing Alastair Cook for 11, but once Pietersen stepped at the crease at number three, he pretty much had one end stitched up.

Pietersen hit 10 fours and a six — a few of them streaky—- in his 111, unable to connect with the freedom normally associated with his batting. The Indian bowling wasn’t too off the mark. The pacers did err initially, unable to get their line right, but the spin pair of Yuvraj Singh (38 runs off 10 overs) and Harbhajan Singh (47 off 10) pulled things back midway by keeping the run-rate down.

Fiery start

Walking in with the score 33/1, the sturdy England skipper had started like a man on a mission, pelting the bowling to race to 25 off just 13 deliveries. But soon, with Paul Collingwood struggling to put bat to ball at the other end, his own strike-rate slowly started falling as runs were hard to come by. He was fortunate on 50, when Yuvraj couldn’t convert a half-chance off his own bowling.

The Indians picked up two quick wickets, Paul Collingwood for 40 and Andrew Flintoff for a third-ball duck — but Pietersen and Shah ensured there were no further mishaps till close. The duo managed to set the platform for a final onslaught that never really came and the kind of manic urgency seen at the end of any one-day innings was missing.

Pietersen cut and drove freely in the last quarter of the innings, but found fielders far too often, while the hard-hitting Shah (66 runs off 57 balls) played his part well as the two put on 112 for the fifth wicket.