Tuesday, December 27, 2011

India Inches Closer To A Clean Sweep

Aided by Varun Aaron’s [3/24] followed by some splendid innings of Virat Kohli [86 not out] and Suresh Raina’s [80] and the 131-run fourth wicket partnership between the two, team India won the fourth one day international against England, at Wankhede stadium yesterday and are now leading 4-0 in the series.  India won the match by six wickets with 59 balls to spare.

The Wankhede stadium, Mumbai saw some fine bowling by the Indians due to which the England team was all out for 220 runs in 46.1 overs.  For
England who have already lost the series and are playing to salvage some pride, the top scorers were Tim Bresnan [45 runs from 45 balls, 6boundaries] and Kevin Pieterson [41]; Jonathan Trott contributed 39 runs.

Other than Aaron who was making his debut for India, Ashwin too took three wickets conceding 38 runs.  In reply, India’s start was not so good but they came back into the game and achieved the target in just 40.1 overs losing just four wickets.  Virat Kohli was the top-scorer with 86 runs from 99 balls and also struck the winning boundary.  On other hand Raina scored 80 runs from 62 balls with the help of 12 boundaries.  The highest wicket takers of the match (three each) Varun Aaron and Steven Finn got all the wickets by clean bowling out the batsmen.

Despite the low target, India didn’t get a good start and lost three wickets by the time the score was 46 runs.  Finn bowled out Parthiv Patel [8] in the sixth over and struck the first blow to India.  After him Gautam Gambhir too followed suit after scoring just one run. Ajinkya Rahane was the third Indian wicket to fall when the score was close to 50 runs.  Rahane faced 37 deliveries, scored 20 runs, was caught behind by wicket keeper Kieswetter off the bowling of Stuart Meeker.  After the fall of these three, the in-form Rohit Kohli partnered with Suresh Raina to take India closer to the target.  Both played with restraint in the beginning and scored their 50s.  Kohli needed 52 deliveries for his half century while Raina took 50.

After scoring his 50, Suresh Raina changed gears and became his explosive self, scoring 30 runs in the next 12 deliveries.  Finn was the one to scalp Raina, who was clean bowled by him with a yorker. Captain Dhoni who replaced Raina ensured that no further wicket fell and team India sailed comfortably to victory.  Dhoni scored 15 runs from 18 deliveries with the help of a four and a six.



No comments:

Post a Comment