What a humdinger of a match! India and England both batted superbly in a nail-biting contest in Bangalore that neither team deserved to lose, and ultimately neither did.
The match, surely one of the most exciting in World Cup history, went right down to the wire, with Graeme Swann hitting a single from the last ball to tie the scores on 338, matching the huge target set by India after Sachin Tendulkar scored yet another glorious century.
The English were cruising at one stage thanks to a magnificent 158 from captain Andrew Strauss and a sparkling 69 from Ian Bell, but a spate of quick wickets left them perilously close to defeat as a deadly spell of bowling from Zaheer Khan clawed India back into contention with just a handful of overs to spare.
Tim Bresnan–easily England’s best bowler on Sunday–came in and hit some priceless boundaries before he was bowled by Piyush Chawla, leaving Swann and Ajmal Shahzad, a late replacement for Stuart Broad, with a challenging target of 14 runs to win from the final over.
A nerveless Shahzad then smashed Munaf Patel for six, paving the way for Swann to bring England level at the death and secure a result that will do his team’s confidence the world of good after a recent dip in form.
The Indian side, meanwhile, will be relieved to escape with a draw after looking dead and buried when Strauss and Bell were at the crease.
Once again, questions will be raised about the strength of India’s bowling attack, but there’s no doubting the talent in the batting line-up, led once again by the formidable Tendulkar, who scored his 98th international century to the delight of the home fans in a packed M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
On this form, Tendulkar looks set this tournament to reach a previously unthinkable 100 international career centuries. Tendulkar’s unflustered 120 was his fifth century in World Cups, another record, but surprisingly only his second one-day international ton against England.
Yet even the Little Master’s performance was outshone by Strauss, who played one of the greatest innings of his career.
The Indian team might regret some profligate batting at the end of its innings, but credit should go to England’s bowlers, particularly Bresnan, whose 5 for 48 sucked the momentum out of India’s performance.
The match got off to a thrilling start, with Virender Sehwag edging James Anderson’s first delivery just beyond Graeme Swann’s fingertips and down to the boundary for four. Sehwag scored a four from his first ball against Bangladesh too, but that was a far better shot than the opener here, and two balls later he nearly fell again as a leading edge sent the ball looping away from Ian Bell’s grasp in the covers.
But India survived the early nerves. Sehwag racked up boundaries, some more convincingly than others, while Tendulkar took a more sedate approach, before switching to an attacking mindset soon after reaching his half century.
After Sehwag fell for 35 to a smart catch by Matt Prior, Tendulkar was well supported by Gautam Gambhir (51), and then big hitter Yuvraj Singh, such a tormentor of England over the years, who smacked 58. When Tendulkar was caught by Yardy in the covers for 120 the crowd fell eerily silent, but it was soon back on its feet to welcome another danger man, India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to the crease.
At that point it looked like India had done enough to win the match, with Tendulkar threatening to steal the headlines once again.
But the England team, and Strauss in particular, had a different storyline in mind–and it proved to be a real five-star thriller that was a treat to watch, but not so great on the finger nails.
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