The Hindu : Sport : Bell helps England post healthy total scoreboard

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 28, 2007
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Sport

Sport

Bell helps England post healthy total scoreboard

S. Dinakar

Spinners Powar and Chawla excel for India yet gain

— PHOTO: AFP

BAMBOOZLED: Kevin Pietersen is stumped by Dhoni off Chawla.

Birmingham: Sparks are bound to fly when an aggressive batsman meets an attacking leg-spinner — in any form of the game. Kevin Pietersen danced down the track to Piyush Chawla, the ball dipped in flight and Mahendra Singh Dhoni whipped off the bails. In other words, Pietersen missed and Chawla was on target, even if the delivery was outside the off-stump.

The emerging leg-spinner had once again sold the dummy to one of the leading contemporary batsmen.

High point

The dismissal marked the high point of the first half of the match as England made a challenging 281 for eight after being inserted at the Edgbaston on Monday in the third ODI of the seven-match NatWest series.

Ian Bell, once again batting at No 3, top-scored for England with a well-constructed 89-ball 79 (2x4, 2x6), anchoring the innings and rotating the strike better than at Bristol.

Rahul Dravid’s decision to field could not be faulted. Batting first in a game beginning at 10.15 a.m. would have been a risk, particularly since there was more than a partial cloud cover.

However, the length of the Indian bowlers was a touch too short on occasions; this was reflected in the number of pull shots Alastair Cook and Matthew Prior managed to play. The pacemen needed to pitch the ball further up, giving it a chance to swing in the rather heavy atmosphere. There was no appreciable seam movement for them on a largely brown surface; most of the grass had been removed.

Perhaps, India needs a re-think on the all-left new ball pairing of Zaheer Khan and Rudra Pratap Singh, particularly since England has a left-right combination in Cook and Prior. However, India does not have several options at the moment with both Munaf Patel and Ajit Agarkar struggling. The selectors could have picked an extra paceman ahead of an additional batsman in the squad.

Munaf, despite prising out Prior (34 off 40 balls) who attempted to strike against the line, was unimpressive. He bowled at a reduced pace, pitched short, and lacked rhythm. Dravid did not have the confidence to bring the bowler on in the end overs.

Attacking ploy

For India, the spinners excelled again. Dravid, in an attacking ploy, introduced both Ramesh Powar and Chawla in the Power Play overs. In this phase, with just two fielders outside the circle, Powar sent down two overs for just two runs, picking up the wicket of a well-set Cook (40, 57b, 2x4), who miscued a sweep. Chawla gave away five runs in the 20th over.

A look at the runs scored in the Power Play phases, taken on-a-trot, makes interesting reading. The first ten overs yielded 48 runs, the next five 34 and the last block just 16 with Powar and Chawla sending down three of these overs.

Powar found his length and direction straightaway, bowling wicket to wicket, and bringing about clever variations in his trajectory, delivering from different points of the crease.

Chawla is getting his leg-spinners to turn more — this is directly related to the fact that he is giving the ball more air — which has also made his googly and top-spinners more potent. The self-belief of this 18-year-old cricketer is enormous; he even bowled at the death.

There were once again a few glitches on the field by the Indians — R.P. Singh put down a sitter off Cook at fine-leg, and Dhoni missed a stumping with Owais Shah miles out of the crease.

In the English innings, Cook essayed some pleasing strokes through the covers and off his legs, the opening partnership of 76 in 13.4 overs was the highest of the innings and skipper Paul Collingwood (44 off 53 balls, 2x4, 1x6) struck some well-timed strokes using his feet although he was fortunate to survive a leg-before shout by Yuvraj .

Lusty blows

There were wickets for the hard-working R.P. Singh in the end, but the host gathered a handy 80 runs in the last 10 overs, with Chris Tremlett striking some lusty blows in the conclusive stages.

Zaheer, who had recovered well from a bout of flu, replaced Agarkar in the Indian XI. England, which finally decided not to risk Andrew Flintoff, suffered another injury blow when Dimitri Mascarenhas hurt his hand during the practice session. Left-arm spinner Monty Panesar and batsman Shah were included in the XI.

England: A. Cook c Yuvraj b Powar 40, M. Prior c Chawla b Munaf 34, I. Bell c Karthik b R.P. Singh 79, K. Pietersen st. Dhoni b Chawla 9, P. Collingwood c sub (Uthappa) b Powar 44, O. Shah b Yuvraj 19, R. Bopara c Dravid b R.P. Singh 1 0, S. Broad c Yuvraj b R.P. Singh 10, C. Tremlett (not out) 19, J. Anderson (not out) 0; Extras (b-1, lb-5, nb-5, w-6) 17; Total (for eight wkts. in 50 overs) 281.