Fortunes on a see-saw, England pull it off

There were many comebacks on Thursday night — Team India after that early wobble, still managing 212 and hitting back after the break with vengeance, the return of Ajit Agarkar with a kind of form that he last showed against Sri Lanka in Pune in the November of 2006, and England’s miraculous three-wicket win with exactly two overs to spare — after going from one down for no score, 35 for 3, 95 for 5 and 114 for 7.

The eighth-wicket unbeaten partnership of Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad, of 99 runs, was the best for England in ODIs and it couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. The home team goes to Leeds 3-1, an inch closer to winning the seven-match series. Broad got his personal best too, in both batting and bowling, to sweetly allow England to piggy-ride for a happy ending.

India were left shattered. After giving in with the bat in the last match, Team India allowed things to drift with the ball yesterday.

Rahul Dravid will have to choose if it was Broad’s four-wicket haul in the afternoon or his 45 not out under lights that did his side in, but on an overview, his side didn’t bat well, ran out of steam with the ball towards the latter stages, and fielding was just as sub-standard as other match days.

As skipper, Dravid did well. He attacked right through to buy wickets, kept his best bowlers on the day — Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar — till he saw the exit of the top-order and put the pressure back on England batsmen, varying with slips, silly-point and short-leg for his two spinners. He wasn’t complacent — probably over-attacking in a bid to finish things quickly. But the Bopara-Broad duo defied them in a calculated manner. It was always a matter of that one wicket, knowing Monty Panesar and James Anderson’s batting credentials.

With no pressure from the run-rate, Broad and Bopara played the waiting game and Indian bowlers fell into the trap, going haywire — 13 wides in those 19 extras — as they went for wickets, never imagining a turnaround lay round the corner.

If cricket can be looked upon as a game of tennis for sometime, it was a classical doubles match out in the centre — Broad/Bopara vs Chawla/Powar.

The Indian spinners got everything — turn and bounce, they teased the batsmen with a clever mix of flight and straight-ons but never got the wickets. Slowly, Broad and Bopara came up over the two spinners, working them in the gaps, and went past the part-timers with some smart running.

Alarm-bells rang, Dravid shook his head and bit the nails — the signs were visible. RP Singh, Zaheer Khan made a hasty return to the bowling mark and were subject to four of the six boundaries the two Englishmen together hit. Soon, it was all over.

Paul Collingwood, the only man from the top five batters to get a sizeable score, was run-out going for a single, but Bopara didn’t flinch at the other end. His 43 not out in 83 balls got shadowed under Broad’s all-round prominence, as much as Agarkar’s four-wicket haul in the first two spells remained clipped.

Dropped for the Bangladesh series after the World Cup, and back in the ODI leg of this two-month tour, Agarkar suffered indifferent form in the first two games. He returned to the playing XI only because of Dravid’s insistence in playing with five bowlers. And Munaf Patel is even more troubled in the third seamer’s role. Agarkar was just as expensive as the last two matches, but he got big wickets — Matt Prior, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff — to make possible the sight of victory.

That sight, though, turned out to be a mirage.

Scoreboard

INDIA: S Ganguly c Bell b Anderson 9, S Tendulkar c Flintoff b Pietersen 55, D Kaarthick c Prior b Broad 4, R Dravid c Prior b Flintoff 1, Y Singh b Broad 71, MS Dhoni b Panesar 13, A Agarkar c Prior b Broad 6, R Powar c Bell b Broad 7, P Chawla not out 13, Z Khan c Collingwood b Anderson 20, RP Singh c Bopara b Anderson 0

Extras (lb4, w8, nb1): 13; Total (all out, 49.4 overs): 212

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-31, 3-32, 4-103, 5-140, 6-147, 7-178, 8-179, 9-210

Bowling: Broad 10-1-51-4, Anderson 9.4-2-38-3, Flintoff 10-1-31-1, Panesar 10-0-39-1, Collingwood 9-0-43-0, Pietersen 1-0-6-1

England: A Cook b Zaheer 0, M Prior c Powar b Agarkar 4, I Bell b Agarkar 24, K Pietersen c Chawla b Agarkar 18, P Collingwood run out 47, A Flintoff c Yuvraj b Agarkar 5, O Shah c Kaarthick b Powar 8, R Bopara not out 43, S Broad not out 45

Extras (lb5, w13, nb1): 19; Total (For 7 wkts, 48 overs): 213

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-14, 3-35, 4-81, 5-95, 6-110, 7-114

Bowling: Zaheer 9-1-45-1, Agarkar 10-0-60-4, RP Singh 6-0-22-0, Chawla 10-0-43-0, Powar 10-0-26-1, Yuvraj 2-0-8-0, Tendulkar 1-0-4-0

(England won the match by 3 wkts, lead the seven match series 3-1)

We were never under pressure: Broad

Manchester: England’s rookie all-rounder Stuart Broad said the moderate target eased the pressure on him and Ravi Bopara as they rescued the hosts from certain defeat against India in the fourth one-dayer. “We had plenty of time to bat so there wasn’t any scoreboard pressure. We didn’t need five or six (an over) where we needed to play outrageous shots,” said Broad who came up with a fine all-round performance to guide England to a three-wicket win at Old Trafford yesterday.

“We could just play each ball on its merits and pick up runs that way. We kept talking to each other, kept it very simple and went down in 10s. When we got to 30-35 (remaining), Ravi said ‘Come on, this is not many runs, we can do this if we keep playing’.”

“It’s a special day for me and the lads. It was great to go out there with Ravi,” said Broad, savouring his moment.

“He was playing himself in and he’s a very calm man. He’s always talking to me and we were egging each other on. We’ve won the game and that’s what we were aiming for. It was fantastic to be involved in that. It was great to get four wickets but more pleasing to win the game,” the son of former England opening batsman Chris Broad said.

England captain Paul Collingwood, who top scored with 47, also showered lavish praise on the two young guns. “The performances by both of them were exceptionally special,” he said.