Cricket story by Dominic Taylor, Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:24:03 GMT


India won the second one-day international at Faridabad on Friday defeating England by four wickets in what was a nail biting finish for the Indians after the top order once again failed to click. India were reduced to 92/5 by some very good balling by the rookie English bowlers but a 118 run partnership between Mahendra Dhoni and Suresh Raina steered India from a potential embarrassment.

England had earlier scored 226 runs with Kevin Pietersen top scoring with 71 runs and also equaled Sir Vivian Richard's record of scoring 1000 runs in just 21 ODIs. English openers Matt Prior and Andy Strauss give their team a steady start to score 66 runs in the first 15 overs before Prior was trapped leg before by a Harbhajan Singh delivery to give India its first breakthrough. Owais Shah soon followed without opening his account. He was caught behind off Ramesh Powar.

Then came a good stand of 64 runs between Pietersen and Strauss, who fell for 61. Flintoff and Collingwood went soon after making just 5 runs each. Geraint Jones made 22, but the wicket of Pietersen when the score was on 193 ensured that England did not run away to a good score. They eventually made 226. In reply, India started cautiously and Gambhir and Sehwag posted a stand of 61 before Sehwag played on off Ian Blackwell.

Some fine bowling by Anderson and Blackwell then rattled the top order. At 92-5 things were looking grim for the hosts, but a 118-run stand between Raina and Dhoni took them home. Skipper Rahul Dravid was pleased with the performance of the youngsters, "It was a great partnership. The way they kept a cool head under pressure showed good temperament and is a great sign for us," he said.

"The top order suffered from poor shot selection and at 92 for five I was very worried." His counterpart Andrew Flintoff was disappointed "In some ways you expect [Rahul] Dravid and Dhoni to finish the game but Raina came in and played a great knock," he said.

Match Summary
England 226 all out - Pietersen 71, Powar 3-34
India 230-6 - Raina 81, Blackwell 2-39
Man of the Match - Suresh Raina

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