September 09, 2007	Sunday	Sha'aban 26, 1428

LONDON, Sept 8: An unbroken century partnership between Kevin Pietersen and captain Paul Collingwood helped England clinch the One-day International series against India on Saturday with a seven-wicket victory in the seventh and final match at Lord's.

India had levelled the series at 3-3 with wins at Headingley and at the Oval but their hopes of a remarkable comeback evaporated as they were bowled out for 187 after captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat.

England lost both openers for ducks to raise the hopes of a huge Indian contingent in a sell-out crowd but Ian Bell (36) and half centuries from Pietersen (71) and Collingwood (64) guided them home with 13 overs to spare.

Dravid’s decision backfired as England dominated from the first ball.

The hosts were boosted by the return of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who passed a fitness test on his suspect ankle and took three wickets, including Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar who both received questionable umpiring decisions.

All the batsmen, apart from Dravid who went for a three-ball duck, got starts before being undone by a mixture of hostile bowling and poor strokes.

Only Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who top-scored with 50, offered significant resistance.

Opener Saurav Ganguly got away with several rash shots and was whacked on the helmet by fired-up paceman James Anderson as India struggled despite no obvious early swing.

Ganguly’s luck ran out when he edged Anderson to the safe hands of Flintoff for a scrappy 15.

Flintoff’s first over was greeted with two boundaries from Tendulkar as he and Gautam Gambhir took the score past 50 but Gambhir went for 12 in the next over when Luke Wright took a low catch at short mid-wicket off a shortish Anderson delivery.In the next over Flintoff cut Dravid in half and seemed to brush the inside edge as the ball went through to keeper Matt Prior. Umpire Aleem Dar’s decision was greeted with a shake of the head by the batsman.

Boos rang round Lord’s in Flintoff’s next over when Tendulkar was adjudged caught behind for 30 after wafting his bat at a wide ball.

Tendulkar, possibly playing at Lord’s for the last time, looked horrified when Aleem sent him to the pavilion.

Toiling on 59 for four, India needed Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa to dig in.

Singh pulled one ball from Stuart Broad for six and Uthappa (22) cut Flintoff for a boundary before he tried to loft medium pacer Dimitri Mascarenhas only to pick out mid-off Anderson.

Mascarenhas struck again when Yuvraj (28) steered a catch to Collingwood at short third man.Dhoni went on the attack with a six and four boundaries to give the large Indian contingent in the sell-out crowd some cheer. His half century came up in 69 balls.

However, he ran out of partners as Ramesh Powar was run out, Piyush Chawla was stumped by Prior to give Mascarenhas his third wicket and Zaheer Khan was bowled by Monty Panesar.

Dhoni was the last man to fall when he tried to slog a slower delivery from Flintoff and went to an excellent diving catch on the long-off boundary from Anderson.

England won the series 4-3, making up for their 1-0 loss in the three-match Test series against the tourists.

Scoreboard

INDIA:

S.C. Ganguly c Flintoff b Anderson 15

S.R. Tendulkar c Prior b Flintoff 30

G. Gambhir c Wright b Anderson 12

R. Dravid c Prior b Flintoff 0

Yuvraj Singh c Collingwood b Mascarenhas 28

R.V. Uthappa c Anderson b Mascarenhas 22

M.S. Dhoni c Anderson, b Flintoff 50

R.R. Powar run out 10

Piyush Chawla st Prior b Mascarenhas 0

Zaheer Khan b Panesar 7

R.P. Singh not out 1

EXTRAS (LB-8, NB-4) 12

TOTAL (all out, 47.3overs) 187

FALL OF WKTS: 1-26, 2-52, 3-53, 4-59, 5-106, 6-119, 7-147, 8-148, 9-160.

BOWLING: Broad 10-0-44-0; Anderson 9-1-28-2; Flintoff 8.3-0-45-3 (4nb); Mascarenhas 10-2-23-3; Panesar 8-2-28-1; Wright 2-0-11-0.

ENGLAND:

M.J. Prior c Dhoni b R.P. Singh 0

L.J. Wright c and b R.P. Singh 0

I.R. Bell run out 36

K.P. Pietersen not out 71

P.D. Collingwood not out 64

EXTRAS (LB-8, W-9) 17

TOTAL (for three wkts, 36.2 overs) 188

FALL OF WKTS: 1-10, 2-11, 3-74.

DID NOT BAT: A. Flintoff, O.A. Shah, A.D. Mascarenhas, S.C.J. Broad, J.M. Anderson, M.S. Panesar.

BOWLING: Zaheer Khan 9-1-40-0 (1w); R.P. Singh 7-0-40-2 (4w); Piyush Chawla 9-1-44-0; Ganguly 4-0-13-0; Powar 5.2-0-32-0; Yuvraj Singh 2-0-11-0.

RESULT: England won by seven wickets to win series 4-3.

UMPIRES: I.J. Gould (England) and Aleem Dar (Pakistan).

TV UMPIRE: P.J. Hartley (England).

MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Mahanama (Sri Lanka).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Kevin Pietersen.

MAN-OF-THE-SERIES: Ian Bell.—Agencies