Sachin, Sehwag blaze away, India 104/0

Earlier, Kevin Pietersen led from the front and slammed an unbeaten 111 as England posted 270 for four wickets in the fifth one dayer against India in Cuttack on Wednesday.

Put into bat, England sent Alastair Cook (11) to open the innings with Ravi Bopara (24) but the opening stand yielded only 33.

Coming at number three, Pietersen engaged himself in two crucial partnerships with Paul Collingwood (40) and Owais Shah (66 not out) to steady the ship and steer England to a respectable total.

Pietersen’s 128-ball 111 — his seventh ODI ton – was studded with 10 boundaries and a six, while Shah’s unbeaten 66 came off 57 balls with nine fours in it. They stitched together a 112-run stand for the unconquered fifth wicket.

For India, Zaheer Khan grabbed two wickets conceding 60 runs in his 10 overs. For the visitors, Andrew Flintoff proved a huge let down today, falling to Ishant Sharma for a third ball duck. Even a change in the opening combination could not do the trick for England and both Cook and Bopara survived a couple of lbw decisions.

Playing his first match of the series, Cook became Zaheer’s first victim in the sixth over and Sachin Tendulkar, at first slip, took a waist-high catch to execute the dismissal.

Pietersen joined Bopara in the middle and began to score at a brisk pace, racing to 21 from 11 balls with four exquisite boundaries. The duo added 35 runs for the second wicket when Zaheer struck again.

Bopara drove it straight to Yuvraj Singh at backward point as England lost their second wicket for 68 in the 10th over.

Bopara’s departure saw Collingwood being elevated to the number four slot and with his Pietersen in full flow at the other end, Collingwood played a perfect cameo.

The track offered little purchase for the spinners and even with Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj operating in tandem from both ends, the visitors had little problem negotiating them.

Even when Pietersen slowed down a bit, Collingwood stepped on gas. Pietersen went on to complete his fifty and then went after Harbhajan, hitting the spinner for a boundary and following it up with a towering six over long-on to complete his 3000 runs in this format of the game.

The duo had raised 89 runs for the third wicket when Collingwood was dismissed by a Harbhajan enticer. Stepping out to the off-spinner, Collingwood lofted it over long-on where Zaheer took a low catch.

Dhoni’s move of pressing in Ishant in place of Yuvraj immediately after the breakthrough paid dividends as the lanky pacer dismissed Flintoff to reduce England to 158 for four.

Pietersen was then joined in the middle by in-form Shah and the duo milked the Indian attack with consummate ease. Having pocketed the seven-ODI series by winning the first four matches on the trot, the Indian think-tank fielded Rohit Sharma and Irfan Pathan for Gautam Gambhir and Munaf Patel.

England too effected two changes leaving out Ian Bell and James Anderson with Cook and Steve Harmison figuring in the playing XI.