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Bhajji back in form with a bang !! |
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Written by Akshay
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Tuesday, 28 March 2006 |
 The first one dayer between India and England at Delhi turned out to be Harbhajan singh's day. The maverick off-spinner first top scored with the bat and then took career best figures of 5-31 to wrap up the match for India.
Flintoff won the toss and put India into bat on a wicket that had a bit of grass on it. Sehwag's drought of runs continued as he was dismissed early for just 7. Dravid, who came in at no. 3 looked in excellent touch as he drove and pulled with authority. He was given a chance early as Owais Shah dropped him at second slip. The England new ball bowlers bowled a decent spell with nippy pace to give some troubles to the Indians on the wicket that had some awkward bounce. Gambhir was aggressive in intent and looked to go after the England bowlers. He hit Kabir Ali for a six and a boundary off consecutive balls before edging the third one to Jones. Yuvraj got out early as he dragged one from Ali onto his stumps, a casual shot with no feet movement. Kaif and Dravid then played out a couple of overs cautiously.Kaif was slow to respond to a Dravid single call resulting in him being just short of his crease. This put India in big trouble at 68-4. Dravid was the next to go as a delivery from Plunkett cut in and got through his defences. Raina and Pathan then put together a useful partnership of 58 crucial runs to get India out of a hole. Both played sensibly and made sure the bad balls were put away. Backwell bowled a decent spell as the Indian batsmen could not go after him due to the fall of wickets. He got Raina and broke the partnership. Pathan follwed suit trying to loft one over the infield off Anderson. This brought Dhoni and Harbhajan together. Dhoni played a circumspect innings as India was in danger of not batting their full 50 overs. Harbhajan took the initiative and played his shots, hitting 3 boundaries and a six. His innings of 37 turned out to be crucial as he added an important 55 runs partnership with Dhoni. Dhoni hit a couple of boundaries before cutting a short and wide delivery off Plunkett straight to Collingwood. Once he was gone the Indian innings ended quickly as Harbhajan and Sreesanth got out off successive deliveries landing Kabir Ali a 4 wicket haul.The Indians ended with 203, a low but competitive total.
The key to defending a low total is to pick up early wickets and Pathan pulled that off for India. In the very first over he picked up Strauss and Owais Shah. Strauss edged one that moved in and seamed away, a beautiful delivery to any new batsmen. Owais Shah was trapped right in front of the wickets as the ball swung in late. England were in trouble at 4-2. In walked Kevin Pieterson and along with new opener, Prior he took the game to the Indians as he played some powerful shots. Harbhajan Singh was introduced into the attack in the 12th over and he struck immediately as he decceived Pior, who went for a sweep shot, with a doosra. Prior skied the ball to square leg and Gautam Gambhir took a neat catch. Flintoff then joined Pieterson with the score on 57-3. He and Pieterson seemed to be in a hurry to finish the game as they attacked the Indian bowlers from the word go. Dravid chose to inroduce Yuvraj into the attack and the move paid rich dividends as he got Pieterson caught in the deep off a full toss going for a slog sweep. The sweep shot claimed another wicket, this time the Engand captain as Flintoff was trapped in front of the stumps by Harbhajan Singh. Suddenly England had gone from 117-3 to 117-5. India were right back into the game and piled on the pressure on the new batsmen. Harbhajan was in the middle of a beautiful spell and his next victim was Geraint Jones. Jones thought of going for the sweep, then realised he had misjudged the flight and tried to change his shot but was bowled. England were now in deep trouble at 120-6. Blackwell and Collingwood tried to rescue them by hitting a couple of bold shots, but Harbhajan struck again as he got Blackwell to top edge a sweep shot to square leg, where Gambhir took a brilliantly judged catch just inches off the boundary line. Harbhajan then got Collingwood caught magnificently by Kaif at short leg in his last over to claim his best figures in one dayers. Yuvraj struck in the next over to get Kabir Ali lbw with a quicker delivery and sealed England's fate. The last wicket pair added some runs before Pathan came back to wrap up the innings getting Plunkett caught behind. India won the match by 39 runs, in the end a comfortable victory.
The highlights were Harbhajan's and Pathan's all round showing & Yuvraj's contributions with the ball. Harbhajan bagged the Man of the match award.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 March 2006 )
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