3rd ODI - England v India

England overcome Jadeja to take 2-0 lead in the series

The defeat streak continues for Team India as England managed to beat them yet again and have taken a lead of 2-0 in the series. Ravindra Jadeja was awarded the Man of the Match despite on a losing cause.

India -234/7 in 50 overs

Ravindra Jadeja - 78 (89)

MS Dhoni - 69 (103)

James Anderson - 9-1-48-3

England 218/7 in 41.5 (D/L)

Keiswetter - 51 (46)

Ravi Bopara - 40 (41)

R Ashwin - 9-0-40-3

The defeat streak continues for Team India as England managed to beat them yet again and have taken a lead of 2-0 in the series.

Keiswetter was the major contributor with 51 and Bopara chipped in with a crucial 40 which helped England chase 218 in 43 overs (D/L). Now with 2 games to go, England can't be losing the series.

The innings began good for India with Munaf Patel trapping Alastair Cook early on the innings but his partner Keiswetter continued his good run yet again. Opener Kieswetter was bowled out by Ravindra Jadeja after scoring a fluent half century and in the next over Ashwin got the prized wicket of Jonathan Trott. 

India came back strongly after removing Bell (run-out) by Dhoni and Ben Stokes bowled by R Ashwin. England were 143/5 by that time but Tim Bresnan and Ravi Bopara batted sensibly to deny India another win. They added a 60 run stand as England went past the Indian (D/L) total of 218.

After a Top Order Collapse Indian Skipper MS Dhoni with a conspicuous knock of 69 and a startling knock of 78 from all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja helped India post a 235 runs target for England. Recovering from 58/5 from 19th over the Lower order ensured India posted a respectable target. R Ashwin with a swift knock of 36 runs in final 5 overs ensured India ended on a positive note

Earlier the visitors were pegged back to 25/4 in the 11th over after being put on to bat by England on a track that had a lot of green grass on the top.

 Ravindra Jadeja replaced Manoj Tiwary and RP Singh came for Vinay Kumar for India and the much anticipated move of bringing Jonathan Trott for the left arm spinner - Samit Patel for England.

Ajinkya Rahane who had a brilliant tour in the limited overs failed for the first time with Anderson with a ball moving away from him and he had a tentative push at it and was caught at first slip for a duck. Anderson was zipping the ball all around and once again he showed his brilliance but in the fielding it was.

Rahul Dravid got dismissed run-out after Patel nudged one to Anderson at mid off and scampered for a single. Dravid struggled to get in at the strikers end as Anderson hit the stump direct. Anderson who is known for long spells did torment India further dismissing both Parthiv Patel (3) and Virat Kohli for 7.

The onus was on the Superkings pair of Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni to put a decent total on the board after losing the top 4 of their line up and they did some damage control. The skipper began the innings aggressively driving the very second ball to long off boundary.

Raina on the other hand had some tense moments with ball moving round in both directions. But he struck the first six of the innings and the duo were looking good to take India to some respectable position. But the stand lasted only 33 runs as Broad this time found the edge of Suresh Raina for 21. 

Ravindra Jadeja who played his last ODI against New Zealand on 4th Dec 2010 joined Skipper MS Dhoni when India was lingering at 58/5 in 19th over. The duo made an essential 112 runs partnership stand for 6th wicket. The batted out middle over’s chipping in singles by playing round the bat with soft hands and putting away the odd bad deliveries to fence. During the Partnership Skipper MS Dhoni reached his 39th ODI fifty with help of 5 boundaries.

Comeback man Ravindra Jadeja looked the most fluent of all batsmen as the southpaw gave a firm answer to his critics by playing a vital knock under pressure. He reached his 5th ODI fifty in 44th over with help of 6 four’s.

The partnership was broken in 45th over by Tim Bresnan as compulsory batting powerplay was taken. MS Dhoni 69(103) became a victim of quick scoring as a low full toss undone him with cook taking a simple catch at mid-on.

The stand between Dhoni and Jadeja was the highest sixth-wicket partnership in ODIs at The Oval, beating the 106 shared by Owais Shah and Luke Wright for England against India in 2007.

Ravichandran Ashwin Joined Jadeja with 29 balls remaining in powerplay and India on 170 runs looking to go par 200 run mark.

Both the Batsmen got their long-handle abilities to work with some useful slogs and chips over infield helping the score cruise closer to 200.

19 runs were scored by both batsmen in 46th over of Jade Dernbach with 4 Four’s in over two hit by each batsman. With 9 runs in 47th over by Bresnan India went par 200 runs mark comfortably.

Jimmy Anderson was brought back in 48th over but Jadeja used his bottom hand to good effect by hammering 2 fours with Ashwin delivering the finishing touch by smacking the last ball to long-off fence in his over costing him 16 runs.

Stuart Broad was given the responsibility of delivering the 49th over but Ashwin got the better of him by playing few cheeky strokes garnishing 10 runs of his over. 

Jade Dernbach was handed over the responsibility to bowl the final over of the inning and with a clever slower one he got Jadeja 78(89) as he looked to clear long-on but gave a simple catch down his throat. An entertaining 59 runs partnership in 5.1 overs at a run rate of 11.41 came to an end.

Praveen Kumar 0(1) Joined Ashwin 36(19) with just 4 balls remaining as Dernbach neatly wrapped up the proceedings conceding just 6 runs in final over.

India ended with a score of 234/7 in 50 Overs after being 58/5 in 19th over. The riposte by the lower-order surely will boost confidence of bowlers on a greenish track with adequate runs on board.