By Sam Hathaway
March 28 2006

Englands batsmen will feel a little aggrieved after their loss today. England opener Andrew Staruss fell for a duck after just 3 balls faced and as England were starting to get back into it with Flintoff and Pietersen, another setback occured. Harbhajan Singh was India's hero as they capitalized on Englands poor batting performance. England were in complete control after they managed to get India all out for 203 but had the worst of starts when Strauss was out for a duck.
Owais Shah fell a few balls later and things were not looking good for England until Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen came in. England were starting to look more relaxed as both players reached over 40.
Then disaster struck again with Flintoff, Pietersen and Jones departing over 4 balls. Flintoff, whose straight driving was particularly regal, was lbw attempting to sweep Harbhajan, and Jones was embarrassed by the same bowler’s change of pace.
Set a seemingly manageable 204 to win in Delhi, the tourists were eventually dismissed for 164 in 38.1 overs.
Captain Andrew Flintoff Blamed the poor batting for the loss;

“When me and Kevin were batting we had them by the proverbials,”

“We lost wickets at bad times and when we went in the space of two overs it made it difficult for the lower order.

“It was an attainable score; we thought it might do a bit more than it did in the morning but the bowlers bowled well once again.

"The result hurts, and so it should, but we have got to look at the areas we need to improve.”

England will need to improve their batting if they have any chance of winning the next one day match



India Batting card

India Runs Balls 4s 6s
G Gambhir c GO Jones b Kabir Ali 25 27 3 1
V Sehwag c LE Plunkett b JM Anderson 7 8 1 0
*R Dravid b LE Plunkett 34 50 7 0
Yuvraj Singh b Kabir Ali 1 6 0 0
M Kaif run out 4 9 0 0
SK Raina c PD Collingwood b ID Blackwell 24 62 3 0
IK Pathan c LE Plunkett b JM Anderson 28 43 4 0
+MS Dhoni c PD Collingwood b LE Plunkett 20 28 2 0
Harbhajan Singh c A Flintoff b Kabir Ali 37 46 3 1
RP Singh not out 2 3 0 0
S Sreesanth c KP Pietersen b Kabir Ali 0 1 0 0
Extras (b 0, lb 3, nb 3, w 15) 21
Total (All out, 46.4 overs) 203


England Bowling figures

JM Anderson 10 1 41 2 -
Kabir Ali 8.4 1 45 4 (2w)
A Flintoff 8 0 31 0 (1w)
LE Plunkett 8 2 42 2 (2w)
PD Collingwood 2 0 17 0 (2w)
ID Blackwell 10 0 24 1 (2w)


England batting card

England Runs Balls 4s 6s
AJ Strauss c MS Dhoni b IK Pathan 0 3 0 0
MJ Prior c G Gambhir b Harbhajan Singh 22 31 4 0
OA Shah lbw b IK Pathan 4 3 1 0
KP Pietersen c G Gambhir b Yuvraj Singh 46 49 9 0
*A Flintoff lbw b Harbhajan Singh 41 37 4 2
PD Collingwood c M Kaif b Harbhajan Singh 8 24 1 0
+GO Jones b Harbhajan Singh 0 10 0 0
ID Blackwell c G Gambhir b Harbhajan Singh 10 20 2 0
LE Plunkett c MS Dhoni b IK Pathan 14 31 2 0
Kabir Ali lbw b Yuvraj Singh 0 6 0 0
JM Anderson not out 12 17 2 0
Extras (b 0, lb 4, nb 2, w 1) 7
Total (All out, 38.1 overs) 164


India bowling figures

Bowling Overs Maidens Runs Wickets Extras
IK Pathan 7.1 1 21 3 (1w)
S Sreesanth 5 0 39 0 -
RP Singh 4 0 32 0 -
Harbhajan Singh 10 2 31 5 -
Yuvraj Singh 10 2 32 2 -
V Sehwag 2 0 5 0 -

Teams:

India V Sehwag, G Gambhir, R Dravid, M Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, S K Raina, M S Dhoni, I K Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, S Sreesanth, R P Singh

England M J Prior, A J Strauss, O A Shah, K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, A Flintoff, G O Jones, I D Blackwell, L E Plunkett, Kabir Ali, J M Anderson