By IANS
London : Twenty-one-year-old Robin Uthappa, playing his first one-day international in England, powered India to an incredible two-wicket victory here Wednesday to set up what should be a pulsating series final at the Lord’s Saturday.
Uthappa, who like captain Rahul Dravid hails from Bangalore, kept a cool head on muscular shoulders and wristy hands to play an array of conventional and not-so-conventional shots before a capacity crowd at the Kennington Oval.
In the end, with just three balls to go, Uthappa hit a fierce off-drive off Stuart Broad to script an Indian victory that many thought would be out of reach.
India were facing an uphill task as England, choosing to bat first, posted their highest 50-over total at the ground, reaching 316 for six thanks to the heroics of Dimitri Mascarenhas, who clobbered Yuvraj Singh for five massive sixes to score 30 runs off the final over.
Much like the 2002 Natwest final, when India looked down and out, this time round the gamble of playing seven batsmen paid off for Dravid as Uthappa managed to score the 10 required off the final over.
Sachin Tendulkar was named the man of the match for his innings of 94 off 81 balls – his second 90-plus score in the series. He was suffering from cramps and chose to go for broke and was brilliantly caught by England captain Paul Collingwood off the bowling of Monty Panesar.
Tendulkar had put on 150 runs with Sourav Ganguly for the opening wicket, the 20th century stand between the pair and the third on this tour. And it is hardly a coincidence that India won all the three matches when the experienced openers got them off to a flyer.
Ganguly contributed 53 to the partnership as India needed to score at from than six runs an over right from the word go.
Gautam Gambhir contributed a usual 47 but after Yuvraj Singh (18), Rahul Dravid (4) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (35) were back in the dressing room, it was all up to the young Uthappa.
When Dhoni departed, India still needed to get 19 runs off 12 balls and it came down to 10 off the final six. Karnataka dasher Uthappa chose to dance around in the crease and unsettle Broad to fire the third ball of the final over past the fine-leg for four after the first two balls had yielded two runs for the loss of Zaheer Khan’s wicket.
The next ball was driven back to the long-off fence for the winning runs – and Yuvraj was the first to dash on to the ground to give Uthappa a bear hug as the batsman jumped and raced towards the pavilion.
Earlier, powered by Owais Shah’s maiden ODI century (107 not out) and his 73-run stand with Mascarenhas for the seventh wicket, England reached 316 for six in the stipulated 50 overs.
It was a tremendous comeback by England, who were tottering at 20 for two and then 83 for four but in the end, they smashed 114 in the last 10 overs to set up an exciting finish.
Mascarenhas provided the perfect finish smashing five towering sixes off the last over, surprisingly bowled by Yuvraj. Mascarenhas scored an unbeaten 36 from just 15 balls.
Shah had also added 107 runs for the fifth wicket with debutant Luke Wright, who completed his half-century before becoming the third home batsman to be run out – after Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen.
Zaheer Khan gave India the perfect start by removing in-form Alistair Cook with the second ball of the match to set the trend before Shah decided to take matters in his hands and help England to a record total which did not prove quite enough in the end.
Scorecard:
England:
Alistair Cook c Dhoni b Zaheer 0
Matt Prior lbw Agarkar 6
Ian Bell b Chawla 49
Kevin Pietersen run out 53
Paul Collingwood run out 1
Owais Shah not out 107
Luke Wright run out 50
Dimitri Mascarenhas not out 36
Extras (b1, lb7, w6) 14
Total (for 6 wickets off 50 overs) 316
Did not bat: Stuart Broad, Monty Panesar, James Anderson.
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Cook, 0.2), 2-20 (Prior, 3.3), 3-79 (Bell, 16.5), 4-83 (Collingwood, 17.3), 5-137 (Pietersen, 30.2), 6-243 (Wright, 44.2)
Bowling:
Zaheer Khan 10-0-43-1 (1w)
Ajit Agarkar 8-0-63-1
Sourav Ganguly 7-0-43-0 (1w)
Piyush Chawla 10-1-44-1
Ramesh Powar 9-0-44-0
Yuvraj Singh 5-0-59-0 (4w)
Sachin Tendulkar 1-0-12-0
India:
Sourav Ganguly c Pietersen b Broad 53
Sachin Tendulkar c Collingwood b Panesar 94
Gautam Gambhir c Panesar b Mascarenhas 47
Yuvraj Singh c and b Mascarenhas 18
Rahul Dravid c Collingwood b Shah 4
Mahendra Singh Dhoni b Broad 35
Robin Uthappa not out 47
Ajit Agarkar run out 1
Zaheer Khan run out 0
Ramesh Powar not out 0
Extras (lb9, w9) 18
Total (for 8 wickets off 49.4 overs) 317
Did not bat: Piyush Chawla.
Fall of wickets: 1-150 (Ganguly, 22.2), 2-156 (Tendulkar, 25.6), 3-209 (Yuvraj, 34.2), 4-216 (Dravid, 35.5), 5-234(Gambhir, 40.2), 6-294 (Dhoni, 47.6), 7-307 (Agarkar, 48.6), 8-309 (Zaheer, 49.2)
Bowling:
Stuart Broad 9.4-0-46-2
James Anderson 8-0-79-0 (1w)
Dimitri Mascarenhas 10-0-55-2 (2w)
Paul Collingwood 8-0-54-0
Monty Panesar 10-0-55-1
Owais Shah 4-0-19-1
Man of the Match: Sachin Tendulkar
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Peter Hartley (England)
TV umpire: Ian Gould (England)
Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka)
Reserve umpire: John Evans (England)