India bowled out for 187, Dhoni top scored with 50

Sep 08: Indian team in the 7th and decider ODI against England at Lord’s after winning toss only managed 187 runs and bowled all out in the 48th over. Before this both the teams are well in numbers in the series winning three matches each. Indian skipper Rahul Dravid after winning toss decided to bat first with anticipation that the peach will favour the batting but unlike his thought wickets tumbled at regular interval without having a visible partnership.

Unlike the last match both Indian openers dismissed cheaply to England seamers and hence the result brought India down putting a very low total for England to chase. Among Indian batsman MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh (28) showed some resistance to English bowling. Dhoni was the last batsman to go just after scoring his half century. Before falling to Andrew Flintoff he managed to put a valuable 50 runs to India’s credit with the help of four boundaries and one six.

All English bowlers bowled well economically and did not give much chance to Indian batsmen to free their hands. Andrew Flintoff and Dimitri Mascarenhas were the most successful bowlers taking three wickets each. Flintoff in his 8.3 over spell took three valuable wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni that really turned the whole scenario. Also Mascarenhas in his 10-overs spell took three wickets giving way only 23 runs.

Earlier in the start of Indian innings Ganguly was the first man to go in the bowling of James Anderson and Flintoff did not make any mistake taking the catch. Gautam Gambhir who had registered a half century at Oval only managed 12 runs and caught at square leg while mistimed a pull shot in the 13th over of the match.

Rahul Dravid (0) then joined Sachin (30) but both of them got out in two controversial decisions as the TV reply shows there was not contact between bat and ball in caught behind decisions of the umpire. Flintoff was the man to take both the wickets to his credit in his comeback match.

Later Yuvraj Singh (28 of 48) and Robin Uthappa (22 of 30) though tried to have a partnership but only added 47 runs in their combination. Mascarenhas was the bowler who bowled really well mixing his delivery and sent both batsmen to the pavilion. Soon after no other batsmen support Dhoni who top scored with 50 runs but was also the last man to go in the 48th over of the innings.

Now it’s up to Indian bowlers to bowl with a good line and length while defending this small total otherwise considering other matches this total of 187 is not enough for a strong and depth English batting line-up.