England look shadows to hide behind as India secured a thrilling 19-run victory on the visitors yesterday in Bangalore. Sealing 4th consecutive victory in the fourth ODI of the Hero Honda Cup , India mounted an invincible 4-0 lead on England as a series whitewash now looks possible. The match showed full symptoms of being abandoned as rains kept disturbing the play till late evening. The Indian innings were first cut short to 44 overs as England won the toss and elected to bowl first. However, weather and destiny had chosen to put England in a literally Catch-22 situation.

After Sachin Tendulkar, who came back in the team replacing Rohit Sharma fell early to Stuart Broad Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir stabilized the Indian innings that was continually interrupted by rains. Sehwag played in his signature no-mercy mode and thrashed 69 runs off just 57 English deliveries. India was comfortably in-command of the match at 106/1 at the end of 17 overs when the play had to be stopped because of weather conditions. The 5 hours of break did not do anything to sweep the tide. The Indian batsmen resumed the play and although Sehwag (69) and Gambhir (40) were dismissed shortly after, another 60 runs were added in the remaining 5 overs consigned for the day.

Yuvraj played a feisty 25 off 11 balls which included three massive sixes. MS Dhoni (9) and Yusuf Pathan (6*) further added to England’s troubles as they sent the ball flying straight off to stands on the first deliveries they faced. India reached 166/4 in the 22 overs that could be managed in the rain-afflicted match. England already looked out of luck and their last hopes sank rock-bottom as the readjusted total by the Duckworth-Lewis system was set at 198.

England were cold turkey in front of the Indian bowlers as they could only score 21 runs in the first six Powerplay overs. The runs did not come, the wickets fell after regular intervals and it was the 87-run 4th wicket partnership between Owais Shah and Andrew Flintoff that brought some contest to this damp squib of a match. Sadly, Zaheer (2/20) tolled Shah (72) in the 17th over and Sharma dismissed Flintoff (41) in the next over and the game was effectively over then itself.

The victory margin is smaller this time and England showed some spine facing the Indians too. But the 4-0 lead is going to work wonders for the Indian morale as they take on England in Cuttack on Wednesday.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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