India on a winning streak, take 5-0 lead

As captain MS Dhoni had promised, there was no dip in the intensity level after the series win and India comfortably won the fifth ODI against England by 6 wickets in Cuttack.

After a blistering start from Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, India lost the momentum a bit as they lost three wickets in quick succession, but then Dhoni along with Suresh Raina consolidated India’s position. Dhoni (50) added 94 runs for the fourth wicket and also raised his 25th ODI fifty before Graeme Sawnn trapped him in front of the wicket. After the captain’s dismissal, Raina and Rohit Sharma saw their side home with 38 balls to spare.

England pacer Steve Harmison gave their side the first breakthrough as he dismissed Sachin Tendulkar for 50 runs. Sachin tried to play a good length delivery towards the cover but missed it and the ball crashed into the stumps. The master blaster became the first batsman to raise 90th one-day half-century. He added 136 runs for the first wicket with Sehwag. The duo had the 100-run stand for the tenth time in a row.

Yuvraj Singh was the second Indian to depart as he perished to a soft dismissal from Ravi Bopara for 6 runs. Bopara took a simple catch in his follow through to see the Punjab dasher back in the hut. Sehwag, despite his blitzing knock, missed out on his ton as Stuart Broad caught him plumb in front for 91 runs. In his 73-ball long innings, Sehwag slammed fifteen fours and a six to raise 33rd ODI fifty, his seventh against England and grabbed his second ‘Man of the match’ award of the series.

Earlier riding on their captain’s knock, England made 270 runs at the loss of four wickets. Electing to bowl first, India started off nicely as pacer Zaheer Khan struck twice to dismiss openers Alistair Cook and Ravi Bopara. Cook was first to depart, as a good length delivery that was going outside the off-stump took an outside edge of his bat and landed in the hands of Tendulkar at the first slip. He could make just 10 runs.

His opening partner Bopara survived a scare but finally perished for 24 runs. He tried to play it up but went straight to Yuvraj Singh standing at the backward point.

Kevin Pietersen (111*), who came after Cook’s departure, held the fort for his side. He first had an 89-run partnership with Paul Collingwood for the third wicket. Harbhajan broke their partnership as the latter holed out one in the deep to Zaheer Khan for 40 runs. In the next over of Ishant Sharma, new man Flintoff edged one to Sachin Tendulkar at slips without any addition to the score.

Pietersen was then joined by Owais Shah (66*) and the duo had an unbeaten partnership of 112 runs for the fifth wicket. While Pietersen raised seventh hundred, his second against India, Shah got his ninth ODI fifty. In the process, KP also completed 3000 ODI runs for England when he was on the score of 58.

India: MS Dhoni (Captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma.

England: Kevin Pietersen (Captain), Alistair Cook, Ravi Bopara, Owais Shah, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior, Samit Patel, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Steve Harmison.

England drop Bell and Anderson

India won the toss and decided to field against England
Ian Bell has been cut from the XI after failing to give England satisfactory starts to their innings

The series is already safely in India’s hands after four dominant performances, but their focus is firmly on a 7-0 whitewash. England have been narrowing the margins of defeat each time, but in truth have only competed on a level playing field for brief periods. There is much for Kevin Pietersen to ponder, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s life is pretty rosy.

England have attempted to shake things up by making two changes for Cuttack, bringing in Alastair Cook and Steve Harmison in place of Ian Bell and James Anderson. This will be Cook’s first game of the series while Harmison is making a comeback after being dropped for the offspinner Graeme Swann in the third ODI. Harmison fared poorly in his two games, taking 1 for 125 at an economy-rate of 7.35 per over.

The switch in fast bowlers was expected after a wicketless four matches for Anderson where he has conceded 158 runs at 6.32 per over, but Bell’s omission is more of a surprise because of the faith shown in him by the England management. However, he too has laboured during the one-dayers and really struggled during the 22-over chase in Bangalore where he managed 12 off 15 balls during the Powerplays.

Cook will be under the spotlight early on after Dhoni put England in, a decision Pietersen called “surprising.” The pressure will be on for the visitors to get away to a positive start, and at least he’ll have a familiar face at the other end in Essex team-mate Ravi Bopara.

India, true to their word, have also made a couple of changes with Irfan Pathan earning a recall in place of Munaf Patel and Rohit Sharma coming back into the middle order as Gautam Gambhir is rested. However, you sense it will take more than a couple of changes to disrupt India’s momentum.

India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Rohit Sharma, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ishant Sharma

England1 Alastair Cook, 2 Ravi Bopara, 3 Kevin Pietersen (capt), 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 Owais Shah, 7 Samit Patel, 8 Matt Prior (wk), 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Steve Harmison

Yusuf and Ojha get maiden call-ups

Yusuf Pathan, a right-hand batsman, and Pragyan Ojha, a left-arm spinner, have been called up to the 15-member squad for the tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan next month. Dinesh Karthik and Munaf Patel, who played in the CB Series, failed to make the cut. The inclusion of Yusuf, who is the half-brother of Irfan Pathan, was on expected lines after his stand-out performances for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. He has scored 334 runs at 27.83 from 13 innings with three fifties, and recorded the fastest half-century of the Twenty20 tournament: off 21 balls against the Deccan Chargers. He also took five wickets at 41.60 with his offspin. Ojha was one of exceptions in an otherwise lacklustre performance by his team, Deccan, who lost 12 off their 14 matches. He took 11 wickets at 25.81, and his best figures were 2 for 18 in their IPL opener against the Kolkata Knight Riders. However Venkatapathy Raju, the former India left-arm spinner who is also one of the national selectors, said IPL performances had not carried much weightage in picking the squad. “Our team did well in Australia and we kept in mind injuries to players in our selection”, Raju told Cricinfo. “Murali Kartik was injured and he opted out so we were looking for another left-arm spinner and Ojha’s advantage is his height. He was the selectors’ choice and not a recommendation from the captain.” Yusuf, meanwhile, was a unanimous choice, Raju said, based on his recent performances. Apart from the selectors, Dav Whatmore, the National Cricket Academy director, Gary Kirtsen, the coach, Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni attended the meeting. Ojha first came in to the limelight last August when he picked up 22 wickets in India A’s tour of Kenya, including 9 for 85 in a three-day fixture that India won by an innings and 87 runs. In four List A games last season, Yusuf scored 92 for Baroda, while Ojha, picked up six wickets for Hyderabad. Their first-class record was better, with Yusuf getting 441 runs at 44.10 from seven Ranji games and Ojha topping Hyderabad’s wickets list with 24 at 31.87 from six matches. Squad Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha.

Yusuf and Ojha get maiden call-ups

Yusuf Pathan, a right-hand batsman, and Pragyan Ojha, a left-arm spinner, have been called up to the 15-member squad for the tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan next month. Dinesh Karthik and Munaf Patel, who played in the CB Series, failed to make the cut. The inclusion of Yusuf, who is the half-brother of Irfan Pathan, was on expected lines after his stand-out performances for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League. He has scored 334 runs at 27.83 from 13 innings with three fifties, and recorded the fastest half-century of the Twenty20 tournament: off 21 balls against the Deccan Chargers. He also took five wickets at 41.60 with his offspin. Ojha was one of exceptions in an otherwise lacklustre performance by his team, Deccan, who lost 12 off their 14 matches. He took 11 wickets at 25.81, and his best figures were 2 for 18 in their IPL opener against the Kolkata Knight Riders. However Venkatapathy Raju, the former India left-arm spinner who is also one of the national selectors, said IPL performances had not carried much weightage in picking the squad. “Our team did well in Australia and we kept in mind injuries to players in our selection”, Raju told Cricinfo. “Murali Kartik was injured and he opted out so we were looking for another left-arm spinner and Ojha’s advantage is his height. He was the selectors’ choice and not a recommendation from the captain.” Yusuf, meanwhile, was a unanimous choice, Raju said, based on his recent performances. Apart from the selectors, Dav Whatmore, the National Cricket Academy director, Gary Kirtsen, the coach, Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni attended the meeting. Ojha first came in to the limelight last August when he picked up 22 wickets in India A’s tour of Kenya, including 9 for 85 in a three-day fixture that India won by an innings and 87 runs. In four List A games last season, Yusuf scored 92 for Baroda, while Ojha, picked up six wickets for Hyderabad. Their first-class record was better, with Yusuf getting 441 runs at 44.10 from seven Ranji games and Ojha topping Hyderabad’s wickets list with 24 at 31.87 from six matches. Squad Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha.