Related Links : India’s Tour of England 2011 : Scorecard of England Vs India, 4th ODI at Lord’s
The fourth NatWest ODI at Lord’s ended in a dramatic Tie which happens to be India’s best result of the tour against England! Superb batting from Ravi Bopara who scored a career best 96 saw England almost chase a huge target of 281. Despite the unpredictable weather conditions, the match almost went till the wire with rain only cutting 1.1 overs towards the end.
On what looked like a grassy pitch, India was asked to bat first by Alastair Cook. England made one change with tall fast bowler Steven Finn replacing Dernbach while India remained unchanged. Surprisingly India got off to a good start despite the openers Parthiv and Rahane getting beaten by the seam movement. The two youngsters put up a bright start of 65 in 13.3 overs before Ajinkya Rahane departed with a 53-ball 38 (with 5 fours and a six). Stuart Broad who got the first wicket went onto remove the other opener Parthiv Patel who chipped in with 27 from 32 balls with 3 fours and a six.
India then saw a steady partnership between Rahul Dravid (19 from 33 balls) and Virat Kohli (16 from 36 balls) but both batsmen departed in the space of two balls in Graeme Swann’s first over. The visitors slipped to 110 for 4 in the 26th over with two new batsmen – MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina having to rebuild the innings. England were in a great position to bowl out India for a less total but the pair of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina had other plans.
Suresh Raina started what was a counter attack which was soon picked up by MS Dhoni and India was nicely back on track. The pair almost saw India through to a grand finish with Suresh Raina only falling in the final over having blasted 84 from 75 balls (with 7 fours and 2 sixes). MS Dhoni remained unbeaten with a slightly destructive 78 (from 71 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes). India from 171 for 4 in 40 overs finished their innings at 280 for 5! England had a major worry towards the end of the innings when Stuart Broad seemed to have badly damaged his shoulder.
England were off to a bad start in the run chase at 27 for 2 losing the in-form openers Kieswetter and Cook to RP Singh. The hosts got back into the match thanks to a busy partnership between Ian Bell (54 from 73 balls with 3 fours) and Ravi Bopara (96 from 111 balls with 6 fours) which was worth 98 runs for the 4th wicket. Bopara got a couple of more crucial partnerships of 37 with Tim Bresnan (27 from 22 balls) and then 50 with Graeme Swann (31 from 23 balls). England were cruising through when Bopara and Swann were in the middle but both got out in the penultimate over to give a huge relief to India. England were at 270 for 8 in 48.5 overs when rain rules out any further action and the hosts were just one run short of the D/L Target at that stage! With the match ending in a tie, there were two players sharing the Man of the Match award – Suresh Raina and Ravi Bopara.