Harbhajan spins India to thrilling win over England

Dravid, who was dropped by Owais Shah off Ali when he had not even opened his account, looking tentative initially, but soon played some brilliant strokes on either side of the wicket on his way to 34.

He was the next man to depart for 34 (50 balls, 7x4s) when he chopped the ball from Plunkett on to his pads and then the stumps. At 80 for five, India, without an injured Sachin Tendulkar, looked doomed.

Then, left-handed pair Suresh Raina (24, 62 balls, 3x4s) and Irfan Pathan (28, 43 balls, 4x4s) came together to repair the damage. And they were successful to an extent as they added 58 for the sixth wicket, playing some bold strokes.

Another significant partnership that gave India a respectable total was the one between Mahendra Singh Dhoni (20, 28 balls, 2x4s) and Harbhajan Singh (37, 46 balls, 3x4s, 1x6). Their 55 gave India a score to fight.

Ali, playing his 10th one-day international, returned his career-best figures of four for 45, bettering his three for 44. Pacer James Anderson and Plunkett took two wickets each.

Earlier, England had rallied to draw the three-match Test series 1-1.

SCOREBOARD

1st one-day international, India vs. England, Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi, March 28

India:

Gautam Gambhir c Jones b Ali 25
Virender Sehwag c Plunkett b Anderson 7
Rahul Dravid b Plunkett 34
Yuvraj Singh b Ali 1
Mohammed Kaif run out 4
Suresh Raina c Collingwood b Blackwell 24
Irfan Pathan c Plunkett b Anderson 28
Mahendra Singh Dhoni c Collingwood b Plunkett 20
Harbhajan Singh c Flintoff b Ali 37
Rudra Pratap Singh not out 2
Sreesanth c Pieterson b Ali 0
Extras: (leg byes 3, wides 15, no balls 3) 21
Total: (all out in 46.4 overs) 203

Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Sehwag, 2.5 overs), 2-56 (Gambhir, 9.4), 3-58 (Yuvraj, 11.1), 4-68 (Kaif, 13.3), 5-80 (Dravid, 19.5), 6-138 (Raina, 32.2), 7-146 (Pathan, 35.2), 8-201 (Dhoni, 45.5), 9-203 (Harbhajan, 46.3)

Bowling:

James Anderson 10 1 41 2
Kabir Ali 8.4 1 45 4 (w 2)
Andrew Flintoff 8 0 31 0 (nb 3, w 1)
Liam Plunkett 8 2 42 2 (w 2)
Paul Colingwood 2 0 17 0 (w 2)
Ian Blackwell 10 0 24 1 (w 2)

England:

Andrew Strauss c Dhoni b Pathan 0
Matthew Prior c Gambhir b Harbhajan 22
Owais Shah lbw b Pathan 4
Kevin Pieterson c Gambhir b Yuvraj 46
Andrew Flintoff lbw b Harbhajan 41
Paul Colingwood c Kaif b Harbhajan 8
Geraint Jones b Harbhajan 0
Ian Blackwell c Gambhir b Harbhajan 10
Liam Plunkett c Dhoni b Pathan 14
Kabir Ali lbw Yuvraj 0
James Anderson not out 12
Extras: (w 1, nb 2, lb 4) 7
Total: (all out in 38.1 overs) 164

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Strauss, 0.3 over), 2-4 (Owais, 1), 3-57 (Prior, 11.5), 4-117 (Pietersen, 19.5), 5-117 (Flintoff, 20.4), 6-120 (Jones, 22.4), 7-137 (Blackwell, 28.5), 8-141 (Collingwood, 30.1), 9-142 (Ali, 31.2)

Bowling:

Irfan Pathan 7.1 1 21 3 (w 1)
S. Sreesanth 5 0 39 0
Rudra Pratap Singh 4 0 32 0
Harbhajan Singh 10 2 31 5
Yuvraj Singh 10 2 32 2 (nb 2)
Virender Sehwag 2 0 5 0

Result: India won by 39 runs

Umpires: A.V. Jayaprakash (India) and Asad Rauf (Pakistan)
Third/TV umpire: K. Hariharan (India)
Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka)

Back to page 1