Men in Blue back in black

In the last over,with seven required,the Indian skipper hit Tim Bresnan for two consecutive boundaries over the cover region to help India overhaul England’s best score of the series with four balls to spare.

England had made a competitive 298,but the Rahane-Gautam Gambhir stand worth 111 for the second wicket and then the unbeaten 68-run sixth wicket partnership in 46 balls between Dhoni and Jadeja sealed the game.

The Dhoni-Jadeja partnership was make-or-break for India as they had lost Rahane,Virat Kohli and the dangerous Suresh Raina (0) between the 38th and 42nd over. While Dhoni and Jadeja held their nerve,two England players couldn’t.

Don’t be mistaken by the red of the England jersey and the three lions on the crest of their caps. Jade Dernbach and Craig Kieswetter are South Africans. And they choked.

With 16 to defend of the last two overs,Alastair Cook summoned Dernbach to restrict Dhoni and Jadeja from reaching the target. Dernbach’s slower ball was worked towards backward point by Jadeja,but as the left-hander turned back for a kamikaze second run,wicketkeeper Kieswetter’s eyes lit up for the throw from the deep.

Double fault

This was Kieswetter’s chance of making amends for dropping Virat Kohli — a sitter on 4 — earlier off Dernbach.

With Jadeja still many yards short of the batting crease,Kieswetter collected the ball cleanly,but kicked the stumps down with his feet instead. As Cook & Co watched in anguish,Dernbach disintegrated faster than an exposed sheet of pure potassium.

Unable to focus his volatile mind,Dernbach resorted to bowling beamers. The Indian captain wasn’t complaining though,for he could see that the match had swung rapidly over the course of Dernbach’s last say with the ball. Following ten runs from his final over — including one no ball,one wide and three waist high full tosses — Dernbach’s figures of 0/69 from 10 overs considerably helped India chase down a stiff target of 299.

Quite ironically,it was a match set up by the two other South Africans in the English side — Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen. Trott’s 98 and Pietersen’s 64 gave England their best chance of winning a match in this series.

Hitting the ground running

But Rahane,who was adjudged Man of the Match,had other ideas.

Opening the innings with his now regular partner in Parthiv Patel,Rahane hit his stride in the third over by fetching a Bresnan delivery from outside off-stump with his spongy wrists to the square leg boundary.

Using his wrists to regularly guide the ball through to third man or past fine leg,Rahane kept the fielders busy with singles. On the other hand Patel played the aggressor for the first 15 overs,striking the ball with command during his 38,before being given out lbw by a Tim Bresnan ball that pitched outside leg. Patel was replaced by in-form Gambhir.

The match seemed to be in the Indian bag at 190 for one in the 33rd over,but following Gambhir’s dismissal on 58,a tired Rahane slowed down proceedings with a bout of cramps.

The thick and free-flowing vein of his runs was clogged by Alastair Cook with some smart bowling changes,and Rahane started hacking uglily at deliveries from the off-side to leg.

India still needed 87 runs when an exhausted Rahane lobbed the ball into Cook’s hands of Steven Finn,the best English bowler of the day.

Dhoni and Jadeja may have had done exceedingly well to time their assault to perfection for the last 65 runs of the hunt,but the runs still had to be scored.

Dhoni and Jadeja milked 13 runs of Finn’s final over — the third last of the game — before Dernbach and Kieswetter combined to give India the match,and the series.