By IANS
London : The British press paid fulsome tributes to the Indian cricket team for Wednesday’s nail-biting two-wicket victory over England and wondered if the final encounter at the Lord’s on Saturday would be equally thrilling.
The Guardian reported India’s victory with the title:
‘India stun England with last-gasp win to level series’, and called the tie as “one of the most scintillating ever seen in this country”.
It reported: “As Robin Uthappa completed a mammoth run chase by drilling an off-drive crisply past the dive of a despairing mid-off and on to the boundary, the air horns and whistles of the Indian contingent in the crowd began their cacophony.
“It had been brilliant stuff, entertainment of the highest class and it has kept alive to the last match at Lord’s on Saturday a series that, when England took a 3-1 lead at Old Trafford, had appeared all but over”.
Large sections of the British Asian community were glued to television sets as Indian stalwarts Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly set about laying the foundation stone in reply to England’s mammoth score of 316 runs.
Uthappa was the hero of India’s victory, but many, including former England captain Michael Atherton, now a television commentator, had problems pronouncing his name. Ex-cricketers such as David Gower and David Lloyd wondered why Uthappa did not feature prominently in the Indian side earlier in the Tests and one-day ties.
Highlighting the achievements of the England side, The Independent reported the event with the headline:
‘England can hold heads high after Oval thriller’, and reported that captain Paul Collingwood had every justification in saying his team could “keep their heads held high” ahead of Saturday’s series decider at Lord’s.
On the blaze of five sixes by Dimitri Mascarenhas, the newspaper quoted Indian captain Rahul Dravid as saying that his plan for “death bowling” by Yuvraj Singh had not come off.
“When he gets hit for 30 in the last over you wonder a bit,” he said with some understatement. “I’ve never seen hitting quite as big as that. If Piyush [Chawla] had caught the first one [he carried the ball over the boundary], it would have been different.
“After that one I said to Yuvraj ‘don’t worry – he’ll edge the next one’. Then I said it after the second one – but after the third one I gave up.”
The Daily Telegraph reported the event with the headline: ‘India defy Dimitri Mascarenhas blitz’, and called it a “ding-dong one-day series”. It added that the grand finale at Lord’s will need something extraordinary to better Wednesday’s thrilling encounter.
The newspaper recalled how India had famously chased 326 to beat England at Lord’s, when Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif had meticulously gone about getting the required runs against Nasser Hussain’s England side in the Natwest final.
It added: “But the fact that five of that team, Dravid, Yuvraj, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan, played yesterday as compared to just Paul Collingwood for England, helped them to believe it could be done”.
The Times reported the tie with the headline: ‘Uthappa resists England power play to put gloss finish on game that had it all’.
It reported: “Pity the man who had to condense this extraordinary match into a highlights package. It had everything: a maiden hundred, a precocious debut, a contentious run-out, a record over of big hitting, verbal jousting, more Sachin Tendulkar genius, a steepling Monty Panesar catch and a last-over finish. A capacity crowd watched, enthralled.
“Rahul Dravid, the India captain, was a picture of ecstasy and relief as he rushed down the stairs from the dressing-room to greet Robin Uthappa at the edge of the outfield, the young batsman having paddled and driven the third and fourth balls of the 50th over, bowled by Stuart Broad, for the winning boundaries.
“The bottom line of a contest with 11 sixes and 71 fours is that England and India will meet for the tenth and last time of the summer, at Lord’s, in what has become an old-fashioned final to the NatWest Series. Unlike the tight Test programme, the one-day leg has been given time to evolve into a compelling affair”.