Pietersen turns gloomy as India outfox England

England 240 India 198-5 (India win by 16 runs, D/L method)

By Angus Fraser in Kanpur

Friday, 21 November 2008

Share
Close
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Facebook
- Reddit
- Google
- Stumble Upon
- Fark
- Newsvine
Print
Email

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Kevin Pietersen (far right), talks with umpire Russell Tiffin after England were denied a possible victory by bad light in the third ODI against India in Kanpur yesterday

enlarge

The smile on Kevin Pietersen's face is a wee bit forced these days. Back in September it was genuine and there for all to see as the England captain eulogised over another thumping victory against South Africa. Pietersen's consternation now is understandable as top form and good fortune continue to elude his side on their slowly improving but ultimately losing tour of India.

It was difficult not to have some sympathy for Pietersen and his hard working side as they fell to a third successive one-day defeat to India. When the umpires deemed that heavy smog had made the light unfit India, needing 43 runs in nine overs with five wickets to spare, were favourites to win, but plenty of matches have been lost from such situations in the past.

It was why Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, was extremely keen to accept the umpires offer to leave the field, a move that brought an up until then intriguing match to its conclusion. Using the Duckworth/ Lewis calculation India were 16 runs ahead of England at the time, and Dhoni knew that one good over from Andrew Flintoff could change the entire nature of the game.

When a match ends in such an unsatisfactory way, robbing the crowd and the millions watching on television of a potentially thrilling finale, a scapegoat is normally found. But on this occasion everybody must take responsibility. The match officials should have been aware of the time the light deteriorates here in Kanpur and reduced the number of overs to 45 a side rather than 49 following the early morning delay for smog. The lunch interval should also have been cut by more than the 15 minutes it was.

The players do not help either, often bringing these situations upon themselves. The over-rate in the match was once again dreadful. Indeed, it took England almost three hours to bowl the 40 overs they sent down.

"It is a very, very bitter pill to swallow but at the end of the day what has happened has happened," said a rueful Pietersen. "I knew from the moment the decisions were made that we were never going to get this match finished. We tried to get things changed but you can't do anything when decisions are made by the hierarchy. Guwahati [the venue for the sixth one-dayer] is even further north so it will probably be getting dark even earlier up there. The officials will have to change things up there.

"We are getting closer to beating India. If the game had gone its full distance we would have taken it close. We put India under a lot of pressure. The aggression was there when we were bowling. The bowlers were fantastic today but what we learnt from today is that when a batsman gets in he needs to score a hundred. It will make us very competitive. Yuvraj Singh showed how important they are in the opening two games."

The venture ultimately ended in defeat but the match was not without encouragement for England. The tactic of promoting Ravi Bopara to opener ahead of Matthew Prior worked, as did the decision to play Graeme Swann, whose final over spoilt otherwise good figures.

Bopara has rarely opened for Essex let alone England but after a few worrying moments in the first over of the match he looked composed and confident. He played numerous flowing strokes in his 60 although, like the rest of England's batsmen, he struggled to manoeuvre the ball around against India's spinners. Until England's batsmen can conquer this shortcoming they will struggle to consistently win limited-over matches on the subcontinent.

James Anderson, playing in his 100th one-day match, was poor but the remainder of England's bowling was extremely good. Flintoff led the fight, bowling with skill and hostility. He was well supported by Stuart Broad. The pair bowled with a slightly confrontational attitude, staring at the Indian batsmen, exchanging the odd word and bowling with fire. The tactic worked, unsettling India's batsmen for the first time in the series.

Swann was excellent too. Virender Sehwag went after him to begin with, but the off spinner persevered, showing the benefit of playing a specialist spinner.

Gary Kirsten, the Indian coach, said that his side were happy to bat second because they were aware of what might happen later in the day, and batting would give them greater control of the situation. There may be an element of bravado in his comment, but an area where India outfoxed England was in the batting powerplay.

England left theirs too late. Flintoff had gone and they scored just 21 runs in it. India took their's when the compulsory ball change was made at the end of the 34th over, and it worked. Dhoni, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan added 38 runs in India's powerplay, 17 more than England. It was probably the difference between the teams.

Kanpur scoreboard

England won toss

England

R S Bopara st Dhoni b Yuvraj Singh 60

I R Bell c Dhoni b M M Patel 46

*K P Pietersen c Khan b Harbhajan Singh 13

P D Collingwood st Dhoni b Harbhajan Singh 1

A Flintoff lbw b Pathan 26

O A Shah c Khan b Harbhajan Singh 40

S R Patel c S K Raina b I Sharma 26

†M J Prior b I Sharma 5

S C J Broad c Dhoni b Khan 0