It's In TeH GaMe !!!

Like me, many other cricket fans, especially English fans, might be praying to the rain gods : Rain, Rain go away, Please come another day. And finally, the rain gods did stop raining. But then the question came about the drainage facility in M Chinaswamy stadium of Bangalore. And the grounds men replied the question with full force, and struggle. India were put into bat first, and were in a comfortable position by scoring 82 runs in the 14th over of their innings with the loss of only Tendulkar when it first rained. The game was interrupted for at least 3 hours.

Finally after some hard work from the ground's men, play resumed, but not for very long. The maximum number of overs were reduced to 44. Sehwag soon reached his fifty and smashed Stuart Broad in the 16th over for a six and 2 fours. After the 17th over it started again. India were 107 for 1 and all their powerplays were over.

This time it looked like the match is going to be abandoned for it was raining quite heavily. But again the ground's men won the battle against the rain and even though it was still quite wet, Pietersen's effort (obviously, he would want his team to play this match and win it too, if they wanted to stay alive in the series) to convince the umpire seemed as if the play will resume.

The number of overs were reduced from 44 to 22. Yeah, almost a T20 game !!! With India having only 5 more overs to go, it seemed like England have the advantage. But Gambhir and Sehwag didn't gave up. Sehwag smashed a six on the first ball after the break. He got out soon, and then came Yuvraj Singh who trashed the England bowlers easily. He was unbeaten on 23 of 11 bowls which included three huge sixes. India ended their innings on 166-4 from their 22 overs. It looked as if England would chase down this target easily. But Duckworth Lewis method came into the game again and from 166, the target for England was set to an almost impossible 198.

England started poorly, loosing Ravi Bopara in the 2nd over of their innings. Ishant Sharma, who finally got a haircut took a brilliant catch of the bowling of Munaf Patel. In the middle overs it look like England could chase down the target easily courtesy Oawis Shah ( 78) and Flintoff. But even from the beginning, powerplays were their problem. They took their 2 over powerplay and struggled to capitalize on it. First Oawis Shah top edged an attempted yorker from Zaheer Khan to give Tendulkar an easy catch at the covers. Then in their last powerplay over, Ishant Sharma deceived Freddie with a slower one who holed out straight to Zaheer Khan at covers.

From there onwards, England were nowhere near the target and collapsed giving India a 19 runs victory in their 700th ODI. India are the first country to play 700 ODI's.

Anyways the Indian captain said that many other players may get their chances in the last 3 ODI's since India have already won the series.

Virender Sehwag was awarded the Man of The Match trophy, a RS. 1 lakh check and a motorbike to ride on.

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