2nd ODI: India beat England by 54 runs

Buoyed by first One-Day International win, India continued its fabulous form in the second ODI as well by leaving England 54 runs short of the victory and leading the series 2-0.

India part-timers had put England in trouble that included Virender Sehwag clinching last three wickets of the day in the form of tailenders Samit Patel(20), Steve Harminson(6) and Stuart Broad (22).

Earlier, Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh added on to the England's woes by removing Paul Collingwood in the 2nd ODI.On the other end, part-time bolwer Yuvraj Singh proved out to be dangerous as he clinched the crucial wickets of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff(43) and Kevin Pietersen(33).

The stylish all-rounder dismissed Owais Shah and Matt Prior in his successive overs.Chasing 293 runs to win, Owais Shah slammed 7th ODI fifty, his maiden against India, before he fell as Yuvraj's first victim.

Yuvi pitched it on the off-stump and Shah was hit on his pads in the line of middle and leg. The Punjab all-rounder tossed one on the off-stump. It turned sharply and took an inside edge of Prior's bat before hitting the stumps. Prior made 38 and added 96 runs with Shah for the second wicket.England lost Ian Bell in the first over as Suresh Raina caught him napping between the wickets.

Bell punched one from Zaheer Khan towards mid-off and ran for a single. Raina quickly collected the ball and dived to aim the stumps at the non-striker's end. Earlier, Yuvraj, the Rajkot demolisher, continued with his sublime form and slammed his consecutive ton of the series to take India's score to 292 runs at the loss of nine wickets against England in Indore.

After the his flamboyant show in Rajkot, Yuvraj was more composed and showed a lot of character as the pitch was not exactly a batting paradise. But his romance with the English attack continued as slammed 10th ODI hundred, his 3rd against the opponents with the help of fifteen 4s and two 6s. In the process, he also completed 1000 ODI runs against England.

Yuvraj joined Gambhir after Rohit Sharma's dismissal when India had just 29 runs on the board. He combined with the opener to steer India out of trouble. The two southpaws added more than 134 runs for the fourth wicket.

Gambhir slammed 13th fifty, his 3rd against England and completed 1000 ODI runs in this calendar year. England skipper Kevin Pietersen struck with his off-spin and broke the partnership between the two as he dismissed Gambhir for 70 runs.After Gambhir, MS Dhoni joined Yuvraj in the middle and added 43 runs for the fifth wicket.

Soon after Yuvi completed his century, Dhoni perished for 15 runs. Paul Collingwood dismissed Dhoni with his off-cutter as the Indian tried to cut that to the third man but the ball came in and knocked off the bails.

Yuvraj soon followed his captain as Stuart Broad got him caught behind. Broad pitched on outside the off-stump and Yuvraj played it with a horizontal bat, only to see the ball kissing his bat before landing in Matt Prior's gloves.

After Yuvraj's dismissal, Yusuf Pathan took it forward. He got his maiden ODI fifty as his birthday gift. Yusuf made a quickfire50 off 29 balls. He hammered Steve Harmison in the 50th over and scored 17 runs off it.

He hit two 4s and four 6s in his innings.Earlier, Broad's early morning spurt left India breathless. Indian skipper Dhoni won the toss but Sehwag failed to capitalize on it and was dismissed in the second over for just 1 run. Broad pitched it on the off stump. The ball didn't bounce as expected and took an inside edge of the bat before crashing into the stumps. In his next over, Broad foxed Raina with an off-cutter. He pitched it on the middle and leg.

Raina (4) chipped it towards the square leg with a closed bat and Samit Patel took it easily. Comeback man Rohit Sharma was his next victim. Broad surprised him with a short delivery. Sharma (3) tried to hook it put the ball took the top edge of his bat and Owais Shah took a simple catch at backward square leg.

Wadekar predicts 7-0 ‘brown-wash’ for England

Bangalore: Former Indian skipper and coach Ajit Wadekar predicted a 7-0 ‘brown-wash’ for the touring England team after their miserable 158-run defeat at the hands of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men in the first One-Day International at Rajkot on Friday.

"I think the Indians’ morale was very high, coming into this match, after their 2-0 victory against world champions Aussies in the Test series. They look like a team on a mission under Dhoni and I won’t be surprised if they sweep the seven-match One-Day series 7-0 as they have the ammunition to beat any team in the world right now," Wadekar told Cricketnext.com on Saturday.

"Personally, this team seems to be more talented than the one I lead during our twin tours of 1971 to the West Indies and England. Of course we beat both the West Indies and England at their own dens in a Test series, but the confidence shown by Dhoni, as captain, and the team, as a united force, tempts me to compare them with the 1971 victorious team," Wadekar added.
Stressing that the Indian team was well on their way to becoming the number one team in the world in all forms of the game, Wadekar said, all other teams will now want to beat India thereby making the task of Dhoni that much more harder to keep-up the winning streak.

"Even when I was the coach of the Indian team, I never saw this kind of total commitment and the hunger to demolish the opponents. The Indians totally demolished the Englishmen with clinical precision by outplaying them in all departments of the game. Dhoni and company will now have to be doubly careful as all other teams would want to beat India to prove a point or two," Wadekar observed.

"I think Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag seem to compliment each other perfectly and the middle order looks as solid as a rock with Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni himself looking in fine touch.

"However, one weak link that seems to be quite evident is Yousuf Pathan, who seems to be a misfit in this team. Dhoni must have had lot of faith in him to be promoted ahead of him in the batting order and bringing him on as a specialist spinner ahead of Harbhajan Singh unfortunately did not click," he added.

"However, it is impossible to get everything right and when a team wins by such a huge margin the team selection does not become prominent. But I am sure in the next match, Dhoni will surely replace Pathan with another specialist spinner as the batting looks well settled," Wadekar pointed out.

"I was also impressed with Zaheer Khan’s lion hearted bowling. This lad has become an important part of our pace attack. Even without Ishant Sharma, I think, the Indian pacers – Zaheer, Munaf Patel and Rudra Pratap Singh -- did well and Sehwag seems to be improving as a bowler with every match.

"So there are lots of plus points for the hosts to suggest that the Englishmen are in real trouble to save the One-Day series at the moment," he added.

Anbu.

Ponting not a complete batsman, says Bhajji

Ricky Ponting might be regarded as one of the best modern-day batsman, but his nemesis Harbhajan Singh feels otherwise.

The off-spinner, who has always enjoyed an upper-hand against Ponting, said he did not consider the Australian captain a "complete batsman" because of his failure to play spin bowling.

"Ponting had a lot to say about our players and about the way we play our cricket. In fact, it is Ponting who first needs to go and learn to bat against spin bowling.

"He got a hundred in the first Test match in Bangalore but I don't think that is enough, he needs to comeback and score some more before he can claim to be a complete batsman," said Harbhajan, who picked up 15 wickets in the series which India won 2-0."I can get Ponting out any time, I think I can get him even after I come post a six-month lay off," Harbhajan told a sports channel.

Harbhajan said India drew inspiration from the Sydney controversy to beat the world champions in the recent series.Harbhajan was involved in the Monkeygate scandal during the Sydney Test earlier this year when the Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds accused the off-spinner of hurling racist abuse at him.Australia also had to cope with a lot of criticism for being unsporting even as India threatened to call-off the tour.

"I think the events in the Sydney Test match really hurt all of us. The things that they accused me of and their overall approach irked us as a team. The events at the Sydney Test match inspired this win."During the series, the Australians continued to play mind games. Adam Gilchrist and Symonds did it in their books while Ponting did in his captain's diary.

Harbhajan lashed out at them for employing cheap tactics to shore up the sale of their books."The whole team was infuriated by the claims made by Adam Gilchrist about Sachin Tendulkar. He is a legend and insulting him was a big mistake and Gilchrist accused him of things that he never did."

Series win sees Harbhajan up the order

Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on Tuesday was rewarded for his bowling prowess in the recently concluded India-Australia series, as he moved up to the career-best seventh spot in the ICC rankings for Test bowlers.

Harbhajan, who was at the ninth position, gained two places to become seventh, the highest ranking the spin bowler has enjoyed since 2003.The 28-year-old took seven wickets in the fourth Test against Australia at Nagpur and, as a result, has moved past Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka and Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar but is still well behind the next highest placed Ryan Sidebottom of England and also Australia's Brett Lee, who had a disappointing series by his standards taking eight wickets at an average of 61.62.Harbhajan's batting impressed in this series.

His 18 not out and 52 at Nagpur pushed him six places up to 87th spot in the rankings for Test batsmen and two places to 11th in the all-rounders' list.However, India's pace spearhead Zaheer Khan lost three places following the Nagpur Test and is placed 18th.

The left-arm pacer took just one wicket for 125 runs in the fourth Test as his new-ball partner Ishant Sharma continued to shine at the other end.Sharma is up six places to 30th position after taking another four wickets in the match and being named as the player of the series.

It is the first time the 20-year-old has broken into the top 30 during his short career to date.Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, who made his debut in the series against the world-champions, is placed 43rd, a remarkable showing considering he has played just three Tests. His Australian spin counterpart, Jason Krejza also shot straight to 49th position after taking 12 wickets on debut at Nagpur.

Only two bowlers - Bob Massie (16-137) for Australia against England at Lord's in 1972 and Narendra Hirwani (16-136) for India in 1988 against the West Indies at what was then called Madras - have taken more wickets on debut than the 25-year-old New South Welshman.Mind you, only one bowler in history - Tommy Scott of the West Indies (9-374 against England at his home ground of Sabina Park, Jamaica in 1930) - has conceded more runs in a match than the 358 Krejza gave up at Nagpur.

Krejza's team-mate Mitchell Johnson has dropped three places to 31st position, meaning Australia now has only two bowlers in the top 30 - Lee and third-placed Stuart Clark - the first time for more than 20 years that has happened.

The bowling rankings continue to be headed by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralidaran, followed by South Africa's Dale Steyn in second place and Clark.In the batting rankings Sachin Tendulkar continued his current patch of good form registering his 40th Test century at that match in Nagpur.

The Little Master gained three places in the process and now sits in 16th position just behind Australia vice-captain Michael Clarke, who lost one place to 15th , and England's Alastair Cook, who is in the England squad to face India in two Tests next month.

Virender Sehwag moved up two places to 11th spot after scoring 66 and 92 in the match and is now very close behind Jacques Kallis of South Africa (in 10th place) and Matthew Hayden of Australia (in ninth place).West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul still tops the batting list followed very closely by Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka in second place.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting slipped two places to seventh in the rankings and is out of the top five for the first time since 2004. The Tasmanian scored a century in the first innings of the first Test of the four-match series but since then has averaged only 23.83 and with competition fierce at the top of the player rankings, that has led to his speedy slide down the list.

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India take Nagpur Test by 172 runs, clinch series 2-0

India have recorded a historic series win over the world champions as they beat Australia by 172 runs in the Nagpur Test to clinch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. They won a Test series 2-0 against Australia after 28 years.

After Ishant Sharma built early inroads in the Australian batting, Indian spinners triggered the collapse, as the visitors were bundled for runs in reply to India's 382 runs. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra picked 3 wickets while Harbhajan Singh took four wickets.

Mishra first struck with his top-spinner and dismissed Michael Hussey for 19 runs. Brad Haddin was his second victim. Haddin lofted one from Mishra but perished to Sachin Tendulkar at mid-on as his 100th Test catch. He soon dismissed Jason Krejza as the eighth wicket.

Harbhajan Singh, from the other end, tightened the noose and was rewarded with the wickets of Matthew Hayden and Shane Watson. Hayden, who struggled throughout the series for a big knock, finally fired and kept the hopes floating for Australia but Harbhajan caught him plumb for 77 runs. Watson (3) was next to depart. He went on his back-foot and tried to cut but was beaten by the bounce. The ball took an edge and Dhoni collected it safely.

Earlier, Ishant picked two crucial wickets to put India in command. Batsmen to depart were Simon Katich and Michael Clarke. In reply to India's 382 runs, Australia resumed batting with their overnight score of 13/0 on Monday. Katich and Hayden started of aggressively. Katich tried to pull a swinging delivery from Ishant, going outside the off-stump, but the bat took a top edge and India skipper MS Dhoni took a well-judged high catch to send the first man back for 16 runs.

Ponting, who came next, soon joined Katich in the dressing room as Mishra's charging from mid-off, collected the ball swiftly and dived to knock the stumps on the non-striker's end. Ponting could contribute just 8 runs.

Clarke, Ponting's deputy, had a dismissal similar to the first innings. He nudged a short-ball angling away from him and Dhoni happily took an easy catch behind the wicket. Clarke made 22 runs and 45 runs with Hayden for the third wicket.
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Harbhajan claims his 300th victim

Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh could not have chosen any batsman other than Ricky Ponting as his 300th Test victim whom he dismissed for the tenth time on Day 2 of the Nagpur Test.

He became the third highest Indian wicket-taker after Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev and first Indian off-spinner to get 300 wickets. He pitched the ball just outside the off-stump. The ball turned in sharply to beat Ponting (24) and clip the bails. This was also Bhajji's 200th wicket on the Indian soil.

On the other hand, bad luck seems to have picked Matthew Hayden as its favourite child on this tour as he once gain failed to convert the start into a big knock. Just when he looked murderous, a direct throw from M. Vijay saw him short of crease for 16 runs.

Earlier, Australia's off-spinner Jason Krejza gave a sensational start to his Test career as he bagged eight wickets in his maiden Test at Nagpur and bundled India for 441 runs in their first innings.

After picking Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman on Thursday, Krejza on Day 2 cleaned up the Indian tail.

He first broke the 119-run partnership between MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly by foxing the former. The Indian skipper tried to paddle sweep but missed the delivery and the ball hit the leg-stump. Ganguly, who was looking set for the farewell ton, edged one to Michael Clarke at first slip.

Ganguly slammed 35th Test fifty, his 7th against Australia. Ganguly played 153 balls and hit eight 4s and one 6 during his knock of 85 runs. Dhoni also got 12th half-century, his third against the visitors, before falling for 56 runs.

Soon after they fell, Krejza hurried the Indian tail-enders pack in the pavilion. He deceived Zaheer Khan with his flight and the Indian fast bowler edged it to the stumps for just 1 run. In the very next delivery, his spinning counterpart Amit Mishra (0) was done by the 'doosra'. After pitching the ball straightened and hit the off-stump.

Ishant Sharma survived few deliveries but he soon nudged one to Katich who took a sharp catch at short leg.

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