Indias replacement killers

Before the match,MS Dhoni had admitted he would use the game to try a few things out and true to his word,made three changes to his line-up,bringing in Harbhajan,Chawla and Ashok Dinda. Zaheer Khan,Virender Sehwag and Ravichandran Ashwin sat out as India went in with five bowlers.

English captain Stuart Broad though,had promised to take the inconsequential match seriously,but instead were bowled out for 80 and lost by 90 runs.

Though the outcome was disastrous,England were in contention until the spinners came on. India had made 170 on the back of good knocks from Gautam Gambhir,Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli,and though Irfan Pathan picked up two early wickets,Craig Kieswetter made an attacking start as England went into the final over of the Powerplay at 39 for two.

Mixed up well

Harbhajan came on to bowl the sixth over and off his second ball,foxed Eion Morgan with a slider. Harbhajan was pumped and England looked all the more unsure after the blow. Harbhajan didn8217;t bowl the standard off-breaks often and relied more on mixing his doosra with the straighter and the arm ball.

To make things worse for the batsmen,Dhoni attacked with spin from both ends,as Harbhajan and Chawla bowled seven overs in tandem. The batsmen tried the sweep,reverse sweep and came down the track,but all of it was pre-meditated and did not come off.

Chawla,who struck on the sixth delivery with a trademark googly that went through Jonny Bairstow8217;s gate,also brought out all his variations as the wickets kept tumbling. In the seven overs that the two bowled on the trot,England lost six wickets for 21 runs,and the game was as good as over.

Indian batsmen though looked more assured,even against the short pitched stuff that the English bowlers relentlessly employed. Kohli,in after make shift opener Pathan was out early,was his usual aggressive self,slapping the second delivery he faced through covers for a boundary and played the pull shot to good effect throughout in a 33-ball 40.

Gautam Gambhir played a more sedate knock and rediscovered some form with a 38-ball 45. The two added 57 runs before Kohli,who had been pegged down by Graeme Swann,holed out to the fielder in the deep,giving the spinner his first wicket. Like the other spinners in the game,he ended with respectable figures,going just for 17 runs in four overs.

Rohit8217;s arrival didn8217;t bring in the big shots immediately,but after the dismissal of Gambhir,the stylish right hander took over. Batting on 18 from 17 balls with just one boundary,Sharma launched into an offensive thereafter,hitting another four boundaries and a six to complete a freewheeling half-century in just 31 deliveries.

While Sharma looked in good touch in the warm-ups,his success against a quality attack would be cause for comfort for Dhoni. And with almost all his changes coming off,Sharma8217;s form was not the only take away from the game for the Indian skipper.