By Sam Hathaway
April 12 2006

England gained some pride back today by beating India with 5 wickets remaining. Stand in England captain Andrew Strauss had to play under extreme heat which rose to 43 degrees centigrade in the afternoon which affected Strauss as he had to retire hurt on 74. Strauss limped off with repeated cramp but by that time England only needed 65 runs off 20 overs. Liam Plunkett and Wicket keeper Matt Prior also needed treatment Due to the effects of the sun.

“It just got to the stage where I was cramping up every shot I played,” said Strauss, following his 85-ball effort. “It is hard to bat in those conditions and once you get cramps they are hard to get rid of.

“I had a drip for 15 minutes or so, I still felt pretty dodgy afterwards but I had to get my pads back on in case another wicket went down - thankfully I was not required.”

Strauss had got the hang of captaining as his bowling changes worked a treat with England surprisingly bowling out India. Even Kevin Pietersen, the seventh of eight bowlers, claimed a maiden international wicket when his occasional off-spin found its way past Harbhajan Singh to hit his off stump.

Surprisingly, Harbhajan stood at the wicket as Pietersen wheeled away in aeroplane fashion to celebrate. The third umpire was called as Singh believed that Matt Prior may have taken off the stumps with his gloves but it was clear that Pietersen had bowled him.

Words were exchanged between the two players after a minute’s delay and there were similar circumstances later in the day when Singh caught and bowled Pietersen. Singh taunted him with a similar plane celebration as to Pietersen.

But with a few panicky overs at the end as England lost a few quick wickets, they eventually won by 5 wickets to spare. Andrew Strauss was delighted with his team but had time to mention his successful bowlers.

“A hell of a lot of credit has to go to our seam bowlers, who did a great job on a flat wicket,” he said.

“They were excellent and set the game up for us.”
Strauss had reason for a little personal satisfaction too, having got back into form.