England beat India, clinch one-day series

London, September 8:

Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood guided England to a seven-wicket win over India at Lord’s and a 4-3 win in the one-day series.

The two hit an unbeaten 114 in a fourth-wicket stand that rescued England from a terrible start and passed the 187-run target set by India with 82 balls remaining.

Andrew Flintoff took 3-45 and a catch. His final wicket was that of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who top-scored with 50. Dimitri Mascarenhas took his best figures of 3-23.

England’s new-look openers of Matthew Prior and Luke Wright had a poor start in reply — dismissed without a run between them off Rudra Pratap Singh. Ian Bell was run out by Sachin Tendulkar for 36 that ended a third-wicket stand of 63 in 14 overs when England moved from 11-2 to 74-3. Collingwood (64 not out) and Pietersen (71 not out) then guided England to victory.

Flintoff and James Anderson combined to dismiss India’s first four batsmen for 59. Ganguly made 15 before he hit a delivery from Anderson to second slip. Anderson took his second wicket when Gautam Gambhir (12) hit a short ball to Wright.

Flintoff had Dravid caught behind with a third-ball duck. Tendulkar (30) went the same way but, like Dravid, was angry at the decision, complaining the ball did not touch his bat. Robin Uthappa added 47 runs in a fifth-wicket stand with Yuvraj Singh (28) before he was dismissed by Mascarenhas.