India overpowers England by 4 wickets in low scoring match

Jaipur, Oct 15 (UNI) India survived mid-innings barrage of fireworks and some inexplicably circumspect batting to overpower England by four wickets in their low scoring ICC Champions Trophy opener here this evening.

Having bundled out England for 125, India made heavy weather of their win before reaching 126 for six in 29.3 overs.

It was a much needed victory. India chased a small target for the win and eventually got home with 20.3 overs to spare - and true to recent form, there were more than a couple of stutters before the Indians got across the line.

The Indians did continue with experiments and Irfan Pathan was again sent in at one-drop ahead of the regular batsmen for whom a match knock may have been of better use.

In the event, he contributed a 34-ball 19, having proved nothing with the bat though there was much to cheer for him with the ball.

Not surprisingly, Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, coming in after the Baroda lad, were all leaden legs during their tenures at the crease.

Munaf Patel and Ramesh Powar had earlier returned career-best figures of 3/18 and 3/24 as England crashed to 125, their lowest score against India. The previous lowest was 149 in 1984-85 at Sydney in the World Championship of Cricket tournament.

Pathan, bowling with some of his lost fire, chipped in with 2/20 and Harbhajan teased and tormented his way to 1/27.

The home side also had to survive a hiccup in the 11th over when James Anderson dismissed Pathan (19) and skipper Rahul Dravid (4) in the space of four deliveries. Pathan was superbly taken in the covers by Kevin Pietersen and Dravid provided Andrew Strauss some catching practice in the slips with an ugly edge off the pacy Anderson.

Virender Sehwag's (9) woes at the international level continued when, in the course of a horrendously wayward Steve Harmison over, he contrived to slash a delivery landing on the edge of the crease to Andrew Strauss in the slips. Sehwag continues to baffle -- great timing and composure in practice matches and at nets and yet all concrete footwork and leaden thinking when it comes to the crunch.

More wickets were to fall - those of Tendulkar for an innings top-score of 35 off 41 ball with five fours, Dhoni (7) and Raina (0) before Yuvraj Singh (27, 60b, 4x4) and Harbhajan Singh (6) saw the side home. Overall, a match that should have been won by a bigger margin was turned into a contest nail-biter, and India barely had the legs to see the game home.

Much was expected of Tendulkar, playing his record 368th one dayer but he made a laboured 35 during his 80-minute stay at the crease.

Earlier, England were done in by a combination of some very clever bowling and clear signs of rust to fall for their lowest-ever total against India.

Munaf Patel demonstrated yet again that he is a bowler improving literally on a match-by-match basis and made the early breakthroughs before the beleagured Pathan repaid the extended faith reposed in him by the team management.

If Dravid did his side a favour by winning the toss, it was quickly repaid. Patel settled into a testing line and length immediately and was among the wickets in his very second over when he had makeshift opener Ian Bell trapped leg before.

Generating good bounce and bowling around the 80mph mark in a long while, Pathan then landed the heaviest blow on England's hopes when he dismissed Andrew Flintoff for a duck. Back came Patel to see off Michael Yardy with yet another leg-before decision and England were now staggering at 17 for three in the eighth over.

Dravid acknowledged Pathan's good display by giving him eight overs on the trot and the seamer did not disappoint his skipper as he bowled a superb spell conceding only 20 runs for his two wickets.

After 21 overs. Dravid introduced the spinners and Harbhajan and Power quickly made life difficult for the lower order.

Thanks to Pieterson (27, 4x4, 39 balls), Paul Collingwood (38, 54b, 6x4) and Jamie Dalrymple (24, 46 balls) England at least crossed the three figure mark before the end came, by which time Harbhajan underlined his presence on the field with a stunning running catch to send back Sajid Mahmood off his spin twin.

Munaf Patel deservingly won the 'Man of the Match' prize.

UNI