Dhoni wins Toss at Mohali to win the Tussle

On 23rdJanuary 2013 at Mohali(India) it was an encounter between bat&ball in the severe cold conditions.England&India were ready to accept the challence Both the teams afforded priority to call the match a matter of life&Death .It was a situation of must win for England to come back into the series whereas it was India's intention to retain the regained 1st rank which they got by virtue of NZ beating the mighty SA. The severe cold conditions were favouring England as they were accustomed to similar conditions as is obvious from the smile on the face of CaptainAlistair Cook. Many veterans of world cricket opined that the Toss would be the deciding factor and the winner of the Toss should elect to take field first as the conditions favoured Pacers more than Spinners.Again Cook&co smiled! Alas!Captain Dhoni won the Toss.Unlike his usual decision to opt against the option of the majority,Dhoni decided for a change to to respect the opinion of the majority&elected to field first.And it paid the dividend at the End of the Day! After the Toss,England CaptainAlistair Cook along with his trusted partner Ian Bell arrived at the crease accepting the welcome shouts from the stands.He was smiling as usual.No tension appeared on the faces of the openers,perhaps,because the conditions prevailed suited them. The Indians on the contrary ,shivering in the cold looked small with tension on their faces of the Pacers how to cope up with the smashing nature of the England openers!The Umpires in the middle(Not in white coats as is the tradition) signalles the start. Ishant Sharma,Shami Ahmed&Bhuvanesh Kumar with ,perhaps,with unusual beating of their heartwere ready to perform warming their bowling hands well. England began steadly with Cook&Bell taking up their job in hand remarkably.Indians again shivered! Owing more to the luck of India ,Dhoni&Sharma than the swinging of the ball,Ian Bell abruptly fell with an individual score of just 10 runs in the 10th over caught by Kumar Bowled none other than the pacer Ishant Sharma.The wicket reminded me Irfan Pathan who is an equally good fast Bowler from Baroda.The score board read 37 for 1.India&Ishant Sharma overwhelmed with joy at the fall of veteran Ian Bell! Kevin Pietersen,the batting terror of England, joined his Captain in the middle much to the fear on the faces of the Indians.As expected ,KP&Cook advanced further, rather with ease, until the 32nd over when unfortunately for the Englanders their CaptainCook fell for a well earned 76 runs with 13 smashing hits to the fence. EJG Morgan joined KP who continued meanacingly with all his might.But again England was without luck favouring them when Morgan fellin the 34th over.The contribution from Morgan was just3 runs.Aswin was the striker while Yuvraj Singh ,perhaps,the best fielder for Indi, famous for his diving catches,neatly collected Morgan.The scoreboard read 138 for 3 wickets.16 overs still left England with KP in the middle had every chance of posting a huge total around 300. Samit Patel the terror batsman of England joined KP.Indians had to sweat even in the extreme cold weather.However bad luck was not leaving the guests alone.Samit Patel could score just 1 run before adding 4 runs to the total&fell by giving a return catch to Ravindra Jadeja the hero of Kochi encounter.The score card now read a less desirable 142 for 4 in the 37th over of the England innings.13 more overs were available for England.KP with his usual temperment was still capable of scoring fast to post a total beyond the reach of India.JE Root the new face in the England Team joined Pietersen.His joining KP later on proved to be a Blessing in disguise for England. Again, fate& fortune were against England as is obvious from the fall of the great Kevin Pietersen himseld to a clean swinging ball from Ishant Sharma.KP had to return reluctantly to the Pavilion. He was thus Bowled when the score card read 220 for 5 in the 46th over. 25 balls remained to be bowled in the England innings.However Pietersen had made 76 from 93 balls the identical individual score of Captain Cook.He had 7 hits to the fence&i over it. In the meantime the hero of England Joe Root was advancing very well in the company of Pietersen.On seeing the fall of KP Joe Root rose to the occasion &smashed at his will &pleasure .His final figure read 57 from 45 balls with 8 fours&1 six.This was the score which helped England to post a good score of 257 at the end for 7 wickets. Butler,Bresnen&Tredwell returned without much of a significant score at the end of the 50th over.They had 14,0&6 respectively as their individual contribution. Joe Root&Tredwell remained Not out.England's final score was a challenging score of 257 with a reasonable run rate of 5.14 per over.In the freezing weather of Mohali 257 looked like a match winning score for England. Indians after the break arrived at the crease needing 258 to win.Gautam Gambhir with his new opening partner Rohit Sharma of Bombay began well but shortlived.Of all Gautaqm Gambhir the recognised opener fell soon after in the 6th over when the scoreboard read dangerous at a paltry 20 for 1. Virat Kohli, the great expectation of India, joined Rohit in the middle.But at Mohali it was not not his day of smashing, proving the old saying"Every day is not Sunday".He fell for just for 26 runs from 33 balls with 3 hits to the fence while Rohit at the other end began shining.However, both together had taken the score to a reasonable 72 for 2 in the 17th over when Kohli fell to a return catch to Tredwell.Rays of hope appeared on the faces of England Players! Yuvraaj Singh joined Rohit.The crowd roared when they saw Yuvraj who had the reputation of hitting Stuart Broad in a single over 6 times over the fence in the T first T20 World Cup.India had won the first edition of T20 World Cup!. But here again it was not the day of Yuvi.He fell unfortunately to Tredwell again trapped in the front Pad.The score card read 90 for 3 in the 23rd over . Next to join Rohit Sharma was Suresh Raina the Hero of the day.Both Rohit Sharma&Suresh Raina took the total to a healthy 158 in the 32nd over.India had for the first time a sigh of relief.When Rohit Sharma fell at 158 on the board,he had become the second Hero of the day with an individual score of 83 from just 93 balls with 11 smashing hits to the fence&1 over the fence.A wonderful contribution from Rohit at the most appropriate time when India needed runs to retain the regained 1st Rank in ICC Rankings.He did it .Later on in the postmatch interview Dhoni said it!!The score card now read 158 for 4 in the 32nd over.18 overs &5 balls left in the Indian innings to get 100 runs.Everyone in the stadium&millions glued to TV sets began smiling anticipating a glorious win for India as Captain Dhoni joined Suresh Raina ,his trusted partner of Chennai Super Kings of the IPL.The Captains contribution was ,however, just19 from 21 balls with 2 hits to the fence.But it looked that was enough at that point of time when he fell at 213 for 5 wickets in the 40th over.45 runs were required from 65 balls at that stagefor India to win. England, now started to sweat in the cold conditions of Mohali.Ravindra Jadeja the hero of Kochi in the earlier one dayer joined Suresh Raina.Both together began playing at ease for the first time in the Indian Innings.Suresh Raina the hero of the day smashed 89 runs from 79 balls with 9 hits to the fence&i over it.Ravindra Jadeja who extended able support to the hero scored a healthy 21 from 27 balls.It was consisting of 2 fours.In the 48th over India found the target with 15 balls to spare.Thus India, not only won the series against England but retained the 1st Rank which they had gained with the help of NZ who had beaten SA on the same day of the one dayer at Kochi against England as well. Now the final onedayer is at Dhrmasala in the foothills of Himalayas where snow fall has eased &sun is coming out according to reports in the media.If this is true the scheduled match might begin on time which is a day match .At least a match of reduced overs is possible taking into account every probability as per reports.In case India could win there too then the ratings which is 120 at the moment might go ahead to a level of retaining the rank until next Word Cup in 2015.At present the ratings are India 120,England 117,Australia 113&South Africa 111. So all the Best to India&England at Dharmasala on 27th January 2013 Sunday. SreedharanMundanat 25th January 2013 17-50Hrs(IST)