By IANS
London : An unbeaten 114-run stand between Kevin Pietersen and skipper Paul Collingwood helped England crush India by seven wickets in the seventh and final one-day international at Lord’s Saturday to clinch the NatWest series 4-3.
Electing to bat first, India were bowled out for 187 in 47.3 overs and England recovered from early setbacks to post 188 for three in 36.2 overs to win the game with plenty to spare.
Defending a small total, Rudra Pratap Singh had raised the hopes of Indian supports by removing both England openers Luke Wright and Matt Prior in the second over of the innings before even a run was scored off the bat. England were 11-2, all the runs having come in the form of extras.
But Ian Bell and Pietersen put their heads down and took the score to 74 when the former was run out after being sent back by his partner. Bell, however, was named the Man of the Series for his consistent performance with the bat.
Pieteresen reached his 16th ODI half-century off 78 balls and was duly awarded with the Man of the Match trophy and the magnum of champagne for his efforts. Collingwood also scored his 17th ODI fifty and the pair saw England through to victory without any further alarms.
Earlier, the Indian batsmen never got going in overcast conditions, though there were two debatable decisions by Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar, who gave skipper Rahul Dravid (0) and maestro Sachin Tendulkar (30) out caught behind off the bowling of Andrew Flintoff when the ball appeared to have completely missed the bat.
Team India struggled to recover from the blows that came after Sourav Ganguly (15) and Gautam Gambhir (12) had both been dismissed by James Anderson, who bowled eight overs on the trot.
The hero of India’s scintillating win Wednesday at the Oval, Robin Utahappa (22) tried to repair the damage along with Yuvraj Singh (28) but when both fell to the medium pace of Dimitri Mascerenhas, India were reeling 120 for six in the 32nd over.
It was then left to Mahendra Singh Dhoni to push the Indian score in the company of the tailenders and the wicketkeeper-batsman duly completed his 14th ODI half-century as wickets kept falling at the other end.
Dhoni was the last man out, brilliantly caught by Anderson in the deep as the Indian were bowled out for 187 in 47.3 overs.
Flintoff and Mascarenhas grabbed three wickets each for the home side.
Scoreboard:
India:
Sourav Ganguly c Flintoff b Anderson 15
Sachin Tendulkar c Prior b Flintoff 30
Gautam Gambhir c Wright b Anderson 12
Rahul Dravid c Prior b Flintoff 0
Yuvraj Singh c Collingwood b Mascarenhas 28
Robin Uthappa c Anderson b Mascarenhas 22
Mahendra Singh Dhoni c Anderson b Flintoff 50
Ramesh Powar run out 10
Piyush Chawla st Prior b Mascarenhas 0
Zaheer Khan b Panesar 7
Rudra Pratap Singh not out 1
Extras (lb8, nb4) 12
Total (all out off 47.3 overs) 187
Fall of wickets: 1-26 (Ganguly, 6.1), 2-52 (Gambhir, 12.4), 3-53 (Dravid, 13.3), 4-59 (Tendulkar, 15.4), 5-106 (Uthappa, 24.3), 6-119 (Yuvraj, 30.2), 7-147 (Powar, 37.2), 8-148 (Chawla, 38.4), 9-160 (Khan, 41.6)
Bowling:
James Anderson 9-1-28-2
Stuart Broad 10-0-44-0
Andrew Flintoff 8.3-0-45-3 (4nb)
Dimitri Mascarenhas 10-2-23-3
Luke Wright 2-0-11-0
Monty Panesar 8-2-28-1
England:
Matt Prior c Dhoni b Rudra Pratap Singh 0
Luke Wright c and b Rudra Pratap Singh 0
Ian Bell run out 36
Kevin Pietersen not out 71
Paul Collingwood not out 64
Extras (lb8, w9) 17
Total (for 3 wickets off 36.2 overs) 188
Did not bat: Andrew Flintoff, Owais Shah, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Stuart Broad, Monty Panesar, James Anderson.
Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Wright, 1.2), 2-11 (Prior, 1.4), 3-74 (Bell, 15.6),
Bowling:
Zaheer Khan 9-1-40-0 (1w)
Rudra Pratap Singh 7-040-2 (4w)
Piyush Chawla 9-1-44-0
Sourav Ganguly 4-0-13-0
Ramesh Powar 5.2-0-32-0
Yuvraj Singh 2-0-11-0
Man of the Match: Kevin Pietersen (England)
Man of the Series: Ian Bell (England)
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Ian Gould (England)
TV Umpire: Peter Hartley (England)
Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka)