India seals ODI series with four successive wins

With the fourth successive one-dayer win against England, India clinched the seven-match Hero Honda Cup. On Sunday, India defeated the England by 19 runs via Duckworth-Lewis method at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore and took an unattainable 4-0 lead.

In a nearly five-hour long rain interrupted match, India scored 166 for four in 22 overs and England were set a revised target of 198 runs in the same overs, as per the Duckworth-Lewis method, but they could only manage 178 for the loss of eight wickets.

Indian seamers – Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel – took two wickets each to pin down England’s spectacular run chase. Shah (72) and Flintoff (41) lead their innings with a 48-ball 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

Zaheer Khan, who spared only 20 runs in his 5-over spell picked up the crucial wicket of Shah on the last ball of 17th over breaking an impressive stand that had almost took the game away from India’s reach. Then, in the very next over, Flintoff was caught in the extra cover while attempting a slower ball of Sharma.

Earlier, opening the innings with Sehwag in his first ODI in eight months, Sachin Tendulkar could only contribute 11 runs before falling to Broad’s in-swinger that battered the off stump. However, belligerent Sehwag hit 69 off 57 balls, when there was no sign of the game heading towards a 22-over match.

Gautam Gambhir was in good knick as well making a contribution of 37-ball 40, while Yuvraj Singh was again displaying his best of form smashed three towering sixes in his 11-ball unbeaten 25.

However, after winning the first three game convincingly, India’s approach to the shorter version, be it the Twenty-20 or 50-50 over match, is way ahead than the English team.

The fifth one-dayer will be played at Cuttack on Wednesday.

Scoreboard India 166 for 4 (Sehwag 69, Gambhir 40) Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-117, 3-142, 4-160. England bowling: Anderson 5-0- 33-0, Broad 6-1-49-1, Flintoff 5-0- 20-0, Samit 3-0-24-

England 178 for 8 (Shah 72, Flintoff 41) Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-44, 3-52, 4-134, 5-141, 6-161, 7-178, 8-178. India bowling: Zaheer 5-0-20-2,Munaf 4-1-21-2, Ishant 5-0-41-2, Yusuf 1-0-17-0, Harbhajan 4-0-42-1, Yuvraj 3-0-31-0.

India won by 19 runs (D/L method)