England dump India

London

June 14: England dumped defending champions India out of the World Twenty20 Cup here on Sunday night. Chasing England’s 153, India replied with 150 for 5 even as Mahendra Singh Dhoni (30) and Yusuf Pathan (33) did their best in the last overs.

The narrow 3-run loss at Lord’s meant the Blues had lost two successive games in the Super Eight stage rendering the one remaining game, against South Africa on Tuesday inconsequential. Graeme Swann turned the game in the 14th over, taking two wickets — those of Ravindra Jadeja and Yuvraj Singh — to take the momentum away from India.

Earlier, Kevin Pitersen stroked a quick 46 and Ravi Bopara cashed in on umpiring error to take England to a moderate total. Electing to bowl, India began well with Zaheer Khan sending down a decent first over as he conceded only three runs.

At the other end, R.P. Singh, playing his first game of the tournament, struck with the fourth ball, getting rid of opener Luke Wright. Yusuf Pathan safely caught the top edge running around a bit from leg-slip . Bopara then displayed fine wrist work to turn Zaheer to the fine leg fence. Kevin Pietersen repeated the shot as England leapt to 15 for 1 after three overs.

However, R.P. was unlucky not to have got his second wicket as umpire Asoka de Silva turned down an appeal for leg-before wicket against Bopara on the last ball of the fourth over.

Television replays showed the ball would have hit the leg stump. England was 21 for 1 and Bopara on 12 then. Couple of big shots followed, including a hooked six by Bopara off Ishant Sharma in the fifth over as England reached 40 for 1 at the end of six overs of power play.

Pietersen swept the first ball he faced Yuvraj, whom he had called a pie-chucker, for a boundary to win a little battle.
Dhoni’s other change, bringing part-timer Ravindra Jadeja on in the 11th over, worked. The left-arm spinner castled Bopara with his fifth ball to end his run-a-ball knock of 37.

Jadeja also removed the dangerously shaping Pietersen, trapping him leg before with a low full toss to reduce England to 92 for 3 after 13 overs.

Dimitri Mascarenhas (25 n.o) then added to the total in the company of Owais Shah and captain Paul Collingwood. Standings after Sunday’s matches (Read as played, won, lost, tied, no result, points run rate):

Group E
South Africa 2 2 0 0 0 4 +0.898
West Indies 2 1 1 0 0 2 -0.150
England 2 1 1 0 0 2 -0.287
India 2 0 2 0 0 0 -0.416

Group F
Sri Lanka 2 2 0 0 0 4 +0.700
New Zealand 2 1 1 0 0 2 +0.943
Pakistan 2 1 1 0 0 2 +0.740
Ireland 2 0 2 0 0 0 -2.300

Top two teams in each group qualify for the semi-finals

Scoreboard:

England:
R. Bopara b Jadeja 37
L. Wright c Yusuf b Rudra Pratap 1
K. Pietersen lbw b Jadeja 46
D. Mascarenhas not out 25
Owais Shah c Jadeja b Harbhajan 12
P. Collingwood lbw b Zaheer 7
J. Foster c and b Harbhajan 6
G. Swann b Harbhajan 0
S. Broad not out 3
Extras: (lb2, w14) 16
Total (for 7 wkts) 153
Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Wright), 2-74 (Bopara), 3-92 (Pietersen), 4-122 (Shah), 5-138 (Collingwood), 6-145 (Foster), 7-145 (Swann).
India bowling: Zaheer 3-0-26-1 (2w), Rudra Pratap 3-0-13-1, Ishant 4-0-36-0, Yuvraj 2-0-20-0, Harbhajan 4-0-30-3 (w10), Jadeja 4-0-26-2 (w2).

India:
G. Gambhir c Broad b Mascarenhas 26
R. Sharma b Sidebottom 9
S. Raina c Wright b Sidebottom 2
R. Jadeja c Broad b Swann 25
Y. Singh st Foster b Swann 17
M. Dhoni not out 30
Yusuf Pathan not out 33
Extras: (lb4, w4) 8
Total (for 5 wkts, 20 overs) 150
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (R. Sharma), 2-24 (Raina), 3-62 (Gambhir), 4-85 (Jadeja), 5-87 (Yuvraj)
England bowling: Anderson 4-0-32-0 (w2), Sidebottom 4-0-31-2 (w1), Broad 4-0-21-0, Pietersen 1-0-9-0, Wright 2-0-16-0, Swann 4-0-28-2 (w1), Mascarenhas 1-0-9-1