England v India, NatWest Challenge, 1st match

[vv_sunil]

England v India, NatWest Challenge, 1st match

Sehwag falls as England take first blood

The Bulletin by Andrew Miller

September 1, 2004



3 overs India 10 for 1 (Ganguly 5*, Laxman 0*) v England
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details




Alex Wharf: handed his England one-day debut © Getty Images



England made the perfect start to the first match of the NatWest Challenge at Trent Bridge, as Darren Gough extracted Virender Sehwag with his 12th ball of the match. Sehwag, as ever, was looking to get a move on, but in his haste, he played too early at a leg-stump delivery and chipped a simple catch to Michael Vaughan at mid-on.


At the other end, Steve Harmison launched his campaign with a typically hostile over, obtaining unsettling bounce from a good length. Sourav Ganguly gave the Indian fans something to cheer about by carving a Gough long-hop through point for four, but as VVS Laxman came out to join him, it was England in the ascendancy.

England won the toss and chose to bowl



England won the toss and chose to bowl first, as the NatWest Challenge got underway under clear skies at Trent Bridge. As expected, England have handed a debut to Glamorgan's allrounder, Alex Wharf, who was drafted into the squad after Kabir Ali was forced to withdraw with a stomach injury.


The NatWest Challenge should be a keen tussle between two teams that have forgotten how to win consistently in the limited-overs version of the game, each desperate to run into some semblance of form before the Champions Trophy. They have taken remarkably similar paths since the last World Cup, where India reached the final and England didn't even reach the Super Six – partly because they refused to travel to Zimbabwe.

India finished that tournament regarded as the only team capable of challenging Australia's continued dominance of the one-day game, although they had been beaten out of sight in both their games against the world champions. En route to that final, they had destroyed English hopes at Durban, with Ashish Nehra picking up 6 for 23 when he wasn't puking up bananas by the side of the pitch.


India's hopes of ending their run of poor form have been dented by the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, who has been forced out of this series with tennis elbow. He may yet return for the Champions Trophy, but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, much rests on Rahul Dravid in the middle-order. He has been handed the wicketkeeping gloves once again, despite reports that he would rather give them up.


Despite England suffering one of the dampest Augusts on record, September has begun gloriously, and a full day's play is in prospect.

England 1 Marcus Trescothick, 2 Vikram Solanki, 3 Michael Vaughan (capt), 4 Andrew Strauss, 5 Andrew Flintoff, 6 Paul Collingwood, 7 Geraint Jones (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Alex Wharf, 10 Darren Gough, 11 Stephen Harmison.

India 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Yuvraj Singh, 3 Rahul Dravid (wk), 4 VVS Laxman, 5 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 6 Rohan Gavaskar, 7 Mohammad Kaif, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Lakshmipathy Balaji, 11 Ashish Nehra.

Batsmen: R B 4s 6s S/R
VVS Laxman (RHB) 11 14 2 0 78.57 Striker
SC Ganguly (LHB) 14 19 2 0 73.68 Non-striker


Bowlers: O M R W Econ
SJ Harmison (RF) 3.3 0 13 0 3.71 (0nb, 2w) Radcliffe Road End
D Gough (RF) 4 1 18 1 4.50 (0nb, 0w) Pavilion End


Recent Overs: . 2 . . . 4 | 2 . 1 . . 4 | . . 4 . 1 . | . 1 . Y.

Current Partnership: 23 runs, 4.3 overs, RR: 5.11


Last Wicket: 10/1 (2.6 ov); Partnership RR: 3.33
V Sehwag c Vaughan b Gough 4 (12b 0x4 0x6) SR: 33.33



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