Zeenews BureauKanpur, Nov 20: After Yuvraj Singh's assault in the first two ODIs, the D/L method came to haunt England in the third match as India were declared winners by 16 runs. The home team needed to be at 183 for the loss of five wickets at the end of 40 overs to win the match under the D/L system. Instead, they were 198/5 at the end of over 40. The loss distances England further more from the Hero Honda Cup.
India now lead the seven match series 3-0. England would be surely frustrated by the way the match went in favour of the hosts as the match was evenly poised and was headed towards a thrilling end at the time when the umpires called off play due to bad light.
Earlier in the morning, England captain Kevin Pietersen won the toss and chose to bat first which meant India were fielding first for the first time in the series.
RP Singh made way for Ishant Sharma. For England, spinner Greame Swann came in for Steve Harmison.
Haze at the stadium delayed the start of the match and it started at 0945 IST. The game was reduced to 49 overs a side due to the delayed start.
It may not have been a flying start for the visitors but once the openers saw through the claustrophobic opening spells by Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel, things looked quiet easy for them.
They remained cautious in the early phase when there was some juice in the wicket and sniffed an opportunity to free their arms when Ishant Sharma came as the first change bowler.
Bell greeted Ishant with two boundaries in the first over, upsetting the lanky pacer's rhythm by repeatedly stepping out of the crease.
Bell was not quite convincing when he nicked Ishant through the vacant slips but made amends with a fierce cut that raced to the boundary in no time.
With Bell on song, Bopara chimed in, proving the perfect foil for his partner. Bopara, who got off the mark with a flicked four of Zaheer, inside edged the pacer for another four before driving Ishant through covers for the same result.
The run-rate was nothing to write home about but England crossed the 50-mark in 11 overs without any loss. This was a marked improvement, considering the fact that their opening stands had yielded just 12 and 6 in the last two matches.
Munaf Patel provided the important breakthrough to India when he had the dangerous looking Ian Bell caught behind by MS Dhoni for 46 runs off 47 balls that was garnished with eight elegant fours.
Soon after England had crossed the 100 run mark, Harbhajan Singh suffocated English captain Kevin Pietersen and the latter perished when he attempted a slog. Zaheer caught Pietersen for 13. He then bamboozled Paul Collingwood with a ‘doosra’ dragging him forward to give Dhoni an opportunity to prove his swiftness behind the stumps.
Indian captain and wicketkeeper MS Dhoni showed his class behind the stumps again as he collected a Yuvraj delivery and whipped the bails in a flash to give half centurion Ravi Bopara no chance to get back in the crease and thus sent him back on a long walk to the hut. Bopara became Dhoni’s third (1 ct, 2 st) victim of the day.
Big Freddie’s brief stint at the crease came to an end when Yousuf Pathan caught him plumb in front of the wickets for 26 runs. Flintoff’s dismissal meant half the English team was back in the pavilion with the scorecard reading 167 in the 37th over.
Samit Patel, who had replaced Flintoff at the crease, joined hands with Owais Shah to steer England past the 200 run mark and bail the visitors out of trouble and save them from an embarrassment of being bowled out under 200.
Singh returned for his second spell and spelled doom for Owais Shah who was leading the charge for England. In an attempt to up the tempo, Shah, who had hit a four off the previous delivery, lofted one in the deep for Zaheer Khan. Owais Shah became Harbhajan’s 200th wicket in ODIs.
Ishant Sharma struck twice after going haywire in his ninth over where he bowled two no balls and a wide that rushed to the fence. Then he dismissed Samit Patel and Matt Prior off consecutive deliveries in the 47th over. Zaheer then surprised Stuart Broad with a snorter and Dhoni did the rest.
Munaf Patel bowled the final over and rattled James Anderson’s furniture off the second last ball. England were, thus, bowled out for 240 setting India a score of 241 to attain a 3-0 lead in the seven match series.
Harbhajan was the star of the show picking up 3 wickets for 31 runs off his quota of 10 overs.
Andrew Flintoff provided England with a much-needed breakthrough when he had the in-form Gautam Gambhir caught at deep third man for 14 runs. The Indian run machine was surprised by a short delivery that Freddie bowled from round the wicket.
Next it was Stuart Broad’s turn to invade the Indian camp. Suresh Raina’s luck lasted just seven deliveries before he dragged one onto his stumps. Raina had looked jittery from the time he had come to the crease.
Sharma also could not last very long and perished to Greame Swann after scoring 28 runs and taking India past the 100 run mark with Sehwag. The duo also put up a fifty run partnership for the third wicket. Sharma edged one into the gloves of wicketkeeper Matt Prior.
Paul Collingwood pulled off a blinder to dismiss the ominous looking Sehwag and in the process of the dismissal stunned the emphatic crowd into silence. Sehwag departed after scoring 68 runs. Andrew Flintoff induced Sehwag into slicing one towards third man and Collingwood did the rest.
Before the light came into action, England’s nemesis Yuvraj Singh was scalped by Andrew Flintoff after the former had scored 38 runs off 31 deliveries. Just when Yuvraj looked like he was getting in the groove, Flitoff pitched a short one that the southpaw whacked only to be caught by Stuart Broad at deep mid-wicket.