India Returns the Favor to England With a 5-0 Whitewash
Statistics is an ass, proved once again on Eden Garden. England is the number one team that had won every match against India in England this summer. India did not even have a respite with a draw, in a single game, whatever the version of the game they played. The aging Indian superstars shivered under the reign of speed bowling, and they were cowered down again and again—one man was a lone exception, who refused to go down without fighting, time and again, in that series. He is the Indian Captain MS Dhoni, and he again played a dominant role in his team’s revival.
India is very strong in India—the expression has now become a cliché, at least this one day series would bear witness to that. Today, England actually lost twice, once with the ball and then with the bat. England had won the toss and invited India to bat. They were coasting comfortably with 80 for no lass after 17 overs, when Gautam Gambhir fell at 38, in near-identical fashion at Mumbai. It was a lifting delivery outside off from Finn that nipped off the inside edge and into the stumps. That was the 1st ball of the 17th over. Finn then bowled 4 dot balls, and in the last ball of the over he produced a beauty that zipped off the seam and uprooted the off stump of Kohli for a duck. In the next over bowled by Bresnan, the other opener Rahane nicked the 4th ball of the over to get out caught. India slumped to 81 for 3.
As wickets kept on falling from the other end, Dhoni was cool and composed, ticking the score with 1s or 2s, only punishing the odd balls that were there to be hit. Dhoni was never in a hurry, as he has established himself as the undisputed king of one day cricket, who knows how to pace the innings. In an earlier one day match when India fell behind and it was left to Dhoni to pace the innings, and he won it in style for India twice clearing the face in the last over. Dhoni scored 75 not out from 69 balls to take his series tally to 212 runs without ever being out.
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