Scores Upcoming Results
27-Jan-2013 11:51:00 GMT
India v England, 5th ODI, Dharamsala

Bell Ton Earns Consolation Victory

Dharamsala: Ian Bell smashed his 3rd ODI ton to help England finish the Indian tour on a high with a comfortable seven wicket victory against India at Dharamsala on Sunday.

England make it 2-3 in the series and there are some smiles now that they head-off to a limited-overs tour to New Zealand. The win puts England level with India on the ODI ranking points at 119, but India are slightly ahead after taking the decimals into account.

India kept the pressure on during the initial part of the innings but England kept building up partnerships and thwarted the home side. Out of form Eoin Morgan made a welcome return to form with an unbeaten 40 too.

Bell (113 not out) completed his third ODI century that came off 134 balls with 11 fours and one six. He also completed his 4000 runs.

Ravindra Jadeja continued his purple streak when he dismissed England's Joe Root as the visitors' maintained a steady pace to their run chase.

Root tried to sweep against Jadeja but missed and got bowled out. He scored 31 runs in 49 balls, which included 4 fours.

Ian Bell and Joe Root had managed to steady the England's innings after losing two crucial wickets early in their run chase.

Bell took the charge after England were reduced to 72/2 with batsmen Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook already back into the pavillion.

Earlier, India's Shami Ahmed took his first wicket of the match when he dismissed Kevin Pietersen (6). Ahmed bowled a quick short ball which Pietersen failed to pull off successfully. Ravindra Jadeja took a good running catch at the deep midwicket which proved to be a big blow for the visitors.

Indian pacer Ishant Sharma bowled out England skipper Alastair Cook (22) after a 53-run opening stand for the first wicket in the fifth ODI at Dharamsala.

Earlier a swashbuckling knock by Suresh Raina helped India reach a decent total of 226 in the fifth and final cricket ODI against England after an inept batting performance by the top-order batsmen in bowling friendly conditions.

Put into bat in conditions helpful for seam bowling, India were 79 for five before Raina (83) led a recovery act before the home team folded for 226 in 49.4 overs at the picturesque HPCA Stadium.

Raina, whose knock came off 98 balls, added 78 runs for the sixth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja, to help the Indian total gain a semblance of respectability. Jadeja's contribution was 39 off 65 balls with a boundary and two sixes.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar also did his bit playing a little cameo of 31 runs that helped India reached to 226.

For India, the slide started in the fourth over when Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli got out in an identical fashion off successive deliveries from Bresnan. Bresnan bowled two fuller deliveries with a hint of away movement.

Both Sharma and Kohli went for cover drives without getting to the pitch of the deliveries and resultant thick edges flew to James Tredwell at second slip on both occasions.

While in case of Sharma, the off-spinner dived to his right to pull off an impressive catch, he did a fumble a bit before holding onto the catch offered by Kohli. The two batsmen were out for 4 and 0 respectively.

Yuvraj Singh made a mess of an innocuous delivery from Finn which he thought would bounce but didn't get above the knee roll as the left-hander closed the face of his bat. The leading edge was a simple catch to Eoin Morgan at point.

The stage was set for Gautam Gambhir to make amends for his poor show in recent times and he did start off well with a boundary off Steven Finn.

During his 42-ball stay at the crease, he displayed two extremes. He looked ill at ease and circumspect whenever the lanky Finn banged it short but played two majestic shots off Bresnan -- a cover drive followed by a straight drive past the bowler.

At 79 for five, Jadeja joined Raina and the two in-form players started the damage control.

Brief scores
India
226 (Raina 83, Bresnan 4-45)
England 227 for 3 (Bell 113*, Morgan 40*)
Result England won by 7 wickets
MOM Ian Bell (England)
Man fo the series Suresh Raina (India)


Scores Upcoming Results
Related links

Top