India lose on countback

Opening new chapter

Chasing 325 runs, India's new opening pair of Gautam Gambhir and Ajinkya Rahane started well and frequently dispatched bad balls for fours. Bowlers had no room for error as Indian openers slammed four fours in Steven Finn's third over. The run-flow never really halted and boundaries came regularly. It was India's first fifty runs opening partnership in the last seven innings and when they looked to cross their three figure mark, Rahane lofted one to long-off off Tredwell. Gambhir had been impressive so far with his ability to use his wrist but soon followed suit and India lost their openers within two overs even as Tredwell gave a good account of himself on his first match of the tour on a flat pitch against this formidably big set of hitters.

Playing his seventh ball, Yuvraj Singh had handsomely slog swept for four ensuring England stayed on their toes. After out-of-form Virat Kohli was caught behind trying to drive Tim Bresnan's length delivery to covers, Yuvraj slammed one awkward six to deep square leg and hit Dernbach for three fours. Root was sent away for back to back boundaries as Yuvraj's fifty came up in 38 balls. Batting with Suresh Raina, he helped run up 60 in nine overs.

powerless play

However, India managed only 33 runs in their last power play and the run rate kept mounting every over. Raina looked set and seemed to have gotten his timing back, especially when scoring consecutive boundaries in the powerplay. But England successfully negotiated their five overs of power-play with Tredwell controlling things. And after Dhoni departed, there was little hope.

Earlier, England got a good start to their ODI tour as their top-order took off where they left in the Tests. However, it was the last two overs of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma which in the end looked the game changers. Craig Kieswetter and Samit Patel scored 38 runs in the last two as England managed to go from 287 for 4 to 325 with the part-timer playing a blinder.

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