England fall over again

At the end, England must’ve been wondering what else they need to do to win a game in India. If it was Yuvraj Singh’s centuries in Rajkot and Indore that took the games away from them, it was bad light in Kanpur that ensured England ended Thursday three down in the seven-match ODI series.

The visitors, for once, did many things right at Green Park in their quest to mount a comeback in the series. Openers Ian Bell and Ravindra Bopara got off to a solid start, and their frontline bowlers Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad bowled with fire to rattle the Indian top-order. But the failure of the England team management in handling the fading light, more than anything else, seemed to cost them the game.

On the other side, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had done his homework well in advance, keeping India ahead of the asking rate right through as per the Duckworth/Lewis system. The hosts eventually won by 16 runs as bad light predictably forced the match to end 40 overs into the Indian chase, which finished on 198 for five, comfortably clear of the 182 needed at that stage with five wickets in hand.

There had been some nerves early on when Broad and Flintoff bowled with purpose to dismiss Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina in quick time. But a gritty 68 by Virender Sehwag and a crucial 52-run partnership between Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni first settled the innings and then gave it some impetus.

Different strokes

Sehwag, after being troubled by Broad’s swing, had to cut down on his stroke-play. It was a measure of how well England were bowling, and even off-spinner Graeme Swann, who got his first game of the series, was difficult to have a go at. Still, Sehwag kept finding the fences intermittently before completing his 31st ODI fifty with a towering six off Swann.

England sensed their opportunity after Sehwag’s dismissal but the third power-play, in fading light, ended their hopes as Yuvraj and Dhoni cut lose. Yuvraj got 14 in Swann’s last over. And though he was dismissed soon after, he and Dhoni had done enough by then, giving India 38 runs from the four-over quota. When it had been England’s turn, they had scored only 21 from their batting power-play. In the final analysis, that could be seen as the difference between the two teams on Friday.

Bad light notwithstanding, England will once again have to blame their batsmen for the loss. They failed to seize the advantage, after getting their noses ahead early following Kevin Pietersen’s decision to bat first. Only a succession of poor strokes stopped them from posting a big score. Bell’s breezy 46 ended with a feather-touch to wicketkeeper Dhoni, and Pietersen holed out against Harbhajan Singh, who finished with three wickets.

England know they need to get their act together before the next match in Bangalore on Sunday, but they’ll have to figure out how to do that quickly. “It won’t be easy but we we’d like to win all the remaining games,” Flintoff said.