India seals series at Bengaluru in a curtailed contest

BV Swagath's Story of the 4th ODI between India and England at Bengaluru on November 20, 2008

The T20 Champs were put to test at a wet Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru today with the Men in Blue asked to defend 198 in 22 overs which they did to seal the ongoing 7-ODI Series 4-0. England failed to capitalize on the favourable conditions to mess up with their chase and fall short of the Duckworth Lewis Target by 19 runs. It was a stop-start match at Bengaluru which ended up in a thrilling finish with the Indian bowlers and fielders holding their nerve. It was England’s best opportunity to taste victory with the bowlers struggling to get a grip on the ball but the visitors approached the chase in the old fashioned mode and were left stranded with too many to get in the final overs.

Toss : Kevin Pietersen won the crucial toss which enabled his side to book the chasing part of the match. Duckworth Lewis was going to play inevitably as the conditions remained gloomy at Bengaluru. India brought in Sachin Tendulkar in the place of Rohit Sharma and the Boss was made to open the innings with Sehwag. England stuck to the same side that lost in the 3rd ODI.

Sehwag, Yuvraj power India to a defendable target

India had to start off normally thinking that the innings would last 50 overs. Sehwag with his new partner Tendulkar looked set to put away the bad deliveries and at the same time see through the new ball spell under the cloud cover. During the 8th over, play was halted as the bowlers’ footholes were being repaired by the groundstaff. Once it was done, the man on strike Sachin Tendulkar (11 from 21 with 2 fours) seemed to have totally lost his concentration as he drove along the wrong line to be bowled by an incoming delivery from Stuart Broad. England had their chances after that but couldn’t grab onto them and the next pair of Sehwag and Gambhir made them pay for their mistakes. When the rain hit the ground for the first time, India got into a decent position at 82 for 1 in 14 overs. 

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