India secure victory to keep series alive

LONDON—An unbeaten 91 by England captain Paul Collingwood could not prevent India from securing a 38-run victory in their rain interrupted fifth one-dayer at Headingley in Leeds on Sunday.
Half centuries from Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh helped India to a massive total of 324-6.
With rain disrupting the match several times, England never looked like coming close to their revised Duckworth-Lewis target and finished on 242-8.
India’s victory kept alive their hopes of winning the seven-game series with England now leading 3-2.
The visitors, put in to bat by Collingwood, got off to a great start as Ganguly (59) and Tendulkar (71) put on 116 in 118 balls for the opening partnership. Yuvraj smashed 72 off 57 balls before being caught on the long-on boundary and Gambhir weighed in with 51.
Gambhir had an escape when Ravi Bopara injured his thumb attempting a difficult caught and bowled chance. The England all-rounder was unable to complete his second over although he did bat later in the match, scoring 11.
Rain forced the teams off for the first time with the score on 286-4 with three overs left and India made the most of them on their return, hitting another 38.
Stuart Broad, man of the match after a fine all-round performance in the fourth one-dayer which England won, fared less well on Sunday, ending with figures of one for 84 from 10 overs.
England, without the injured Andrew Flintoff, made a poor start to their reply with Alastair Cook caught behind by Mahendra Singh Dhoni for four with the total on just seven.
The India wicketkeeper took five catches and made a stumping as England wickets fell steadily throughout the innings.
A second-wicket partnership of 90 runs between Matt Prior (46) and Ian Bell (44) kept the hosts in contention until India took three quick wickets, including Kevin Pietersen who was caught behind off the bowling of Zaheer Khan for a duck.
There was a second rain delay with England on 105-4 and when play resumed, Collingwood hit three massive sixes but he was running out of partners when a third halt for rain finally ended the match.
Ganguly was the pick of the Indian bowlers, taking two for 26, while Ramesh Powar and Ajit Agarkar also grabbed a couple of wickets each.—Agencies