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Chasing a modest victory target of 154, India's famed batting order crumbled when it mattered most and the defending champions could manage 150 for five to see their title defence lay in tatters.
The sizeable Indian crowd at the historic Lord's were in a state of disbelief as Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men failed to reach the target in the must-win game.
For India, Gautam Gambhir (26) and Ravindra Jadeja (25) got the starts but could not convert it and Yusuf Pathan (33 off 17 balls) and Dhoni (30 off 20 balls) made a last ditch effort but it was not enough in the end.
Put into bat, England earlier rode on cameos from Kevin Pietersen (46), Ravi Bopara (37) and Dimitri Mascarenhas (25 not out) to reach a modest 153 for seven and India owed it to Harbhajan Singh (3/30) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/26) for keeping the hosts in a leash.
Defending the total, the England pacers peppered India with short-pitch stuff that made life difficult for the defending champions.
Their title defence over, India play their next Super Eight match against South Africa in Nottingham on Tuesday.
The target did not look particularly insurmountable but Ryan Sidebottoms' early double strike meant India did not get the start they wanted.
Rohit Sharma (9) seemed to have left his form behind in the pool stage and once again the Mumbaikar failed to do justice to the makeshift opener's role when he dragged one onto his stumps.
Suresh Raina (2) too could not replicate his IPL form and mistimed a pool for Luke Wright to take a well-judged skier.
Gautam Gambhir (26) looked more comfortable than most of his teammates and played some delectable cover drives before a paddle shot off Mascarenhas ended his run-a-ball stay.
With no freebies on offer, Ravindra Jadeja (25) tried to break free, only to perish in the deep and Graeme Swann dealt a bigger blow three balls later.
Familiar England nemesis Yuvraj Singh (17) had started with a huge six off Mascarenhas and repeated the treatment to Swann but it proved too good to last long as he returned stumped with James Foster doing a smart job behind the stumps.
Dhoni and Pathan tried their best but could get only 15 of the 19 runs they required from the last over from Sidebottom.
Earlier, Pietersen played a dominating hand as England ran up a respectable score after Dhoni put them into bat.
England's premier batsman walked in to bat in the second over and stayed till the 13th over to smash 46 off 27 balls with five fours and a six, forging an important stand of 71 with Ravi Bopara (37) for the second wicket.
India chose to field first and were immediately rewarded when opener Luke Wright (1) fell to R P Singh in the second over.
The second wicket pair for the hosts then hustled the Indians, running brilliantly between the wickets and never missing a chance to go for big shots.
Dhoni tried to play on Pietersen's ego by bringing Yuvraj Singh on as the two don't have any love lost between them.
Bopara struck the left-arm spinner's first ball past extra cover for four and then Pietersen did the same, sweeping Yuvraj to fine leg for four.
Dhoni introduced Ravindra Jadeja (2/26) in the 11th over and the left-arm spinner immediately gave his team the wickets they were looking for.
Repeated attempts by batsman to dash down the track didn't materialise and when Bopara made room to cut, he missed the delivery and was castled after a run-a-ball knock.
But the wicket Indians were looking for came in the 13th over when Pietersen, after hoisting Jadeja into the midwicket stands, tried to do it again next delivery but was adjudged leg before wicket as the dipping full toss hit him on his pad.
Harbhajan (3/30) was on a hat-trick after getting James Foster (6) and Graeme Swann (0) off successive delives even though the milestone eventually eluded him.
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what happens its just a game winning and lost is a part of game i am pakistani and i am also disappointed with india outage beacause i want to asian country to won the tournament so now pray for pakistan and srilanka to won this cup,,,,so my 4 teams,,india,,pakistan,,,srilanka,,and bangladesh,,,if no one win then disappointment,,if any one win i winMuhammad NoumanLahore pakistan
We won the 2007 World cup only because of the stupidity of Pakistan. Pakistan are much better players and can't compare them to India. India only concentrates on defeating Pakistan but does not concentrate on the rest of the teams. India was weak in their batting, bowling and fielding. The 4 teams that are in the semis (West Indies, Sri Lanka, South AFrica and Pakistan) deserve to be there. I hope the best for all the 4 teams.
it is time to glamourise the game of boxing, archery, and hockey in which our juniors are doing reasonably well. all these are olympic games.
It seems like just another fixed matches. Defeated by just 3 runs!!!!!!! Well fixed fellas....I was biting my nails all along.India should forget Cricket for a decade so that all the betting comes to an end.STOP PLAYERS FROM ENDORSING TILL RETIREMENT.PLAYERS SHOULD BE PAYED ONLY IF THEY WIN MATCHES. THEY SHOULD NOT BE PAYED FOR LOST MATCHES.
That's really true.I am in favor of the views that have been posted about this website.I was looking for a website of similar nature and finally i found one for myselfPersonal Injury Lawyer
shewag maters.
It's not just Dhoni's wrong decisions that was the reason for India's loss. What can a captian do, when his key players who were in superb form before the T20 cup just didn't click? Can't drop them, but just hope that they click. And Bhajji's 10 wides decided our fate. Moreover the fielding wasn't up to the mark.. Zaheer letting a ball reach the boundary when it should have been easily stopped, Yuvi's misfielding on the wide of Bhajji in the last over, fielders just diving and the ball going from beneath them.. these itself cost us more than 20 runs.. We need to accept that India was very well outperformed by England in all 3 aspects.. a good reality check..
Guys , we need to leave him alone. He aint a time machine. Good job Team India. We're anyways very proud of you!
Skipper stated not once but many times during the entire tournament that he always had good bowling options; since he had good bowling options, I cant understand the justification of chasing a target. How come one defeat against West Indies can make the captain think altogether other way?.I hope the captain must have watched Pakistan chasing against England, Those short pitched deliveries really put pursuers rearward but Mr. Dhoni in spite of working on the opponent strategy preferred to play under the same circumstances. He certainly have underrated his bowling lineup yesterday.Ravindra Jadeja shouldn't have been brought up to the order, in lieu Youvi must have been used, I reckon this was dizziest mistake that let the team down.
I don't understand instead of insulting our President by not accpeting the award and letting down our nation's reward, how come MS Dhoni is still in the team leading india who has not only made ashamed but also put down so many indian hearts crying. The best and stringent way to get the players on board to work hard is stop their income source so than only they will know the value of money and to work hard to get that, now they are relax because they know people in india will forget after few days and again they are ready to get what they want.
Never be arrogant.Must learn 4m this defeat.U had the strongest team in this worldcup,but u people got overconfident.now,just c my pakistani team,giving thrill to the further matches.U guys,just chill now.
England found weakness in indian batting-inabilty to play short balls confidently and exploited to full. In match against Pakistan, England used the same tactic and when one of short balls was declared no bowl, Collingwood aproach the umpire. So, if Indian team has picked England tactic of using short bowls against subcontinent players ,in Pakistan match, they would be prepared. But no, Indian team thought it is far superior to learn anything from Pak-England match.
Guyz We are all disappointed,but during this difficult timeslets not loose our faith in TEAM INDIA,we are a good team who have consistently achieved gud results in the last year and half,one bad tournament doesent make us a bad team or dhoni a bad captain..let us all get behind our team now,and stop searching for scape goats,jadeja yes he struggled yesterday,but he is very young and he will be back and he will win us matches in the future,lets not blame him and make him loose his confidence.
Now Mr. Dhoni can contact Mr.Lalit modi to organize yet another IPL immediately. The Indian players are readily available and also get players from T20 World cup eliminated teams. The rest players will found out from within India itself. Though Mr. Dhoni always points out that T20 is the game of youth, his dicision makings as captain in the last few games shows he is a grandpa with faded memories. The people of India will defenitely react to Dhoni the same way he reacted towards the media during the Sewag fitness issue. How the cricket crazy nation will forgive Dhoni for his foolishness in sending Jadega at no. 3 and including Ishant Sharma in playing 11. It was really frustrating to see that most of MSD strokes were not piercing the fileders, but only pierces to the ground. limitless money makes the players lazy. calculate their immense earnigs and the efforts made for that. yes, they are in dreamland!!!
i can not belive that england beat india in this ipl most strong team but in beating i m shock
Sack arrogant dhoni immediately
THIS IS EXTREMLY SAD NEWS THAT WE HAVE LOST THE CHANCES FOR GETTING WORLD CUP .......... BUT NEVER MIND....2010 WILL BE OUR.....GULAM MOHAMMED MOHIUDDIN
For all the fan of cricket take it as game, spl for india fans, i have strong comments to that Sehwag exit was a biglost for india.
For the 2nd time in a crucial game we saw another Indian batsman emulate the "wall". Ravindra Jadeja scored at less than run a ball. Not to forget, Bhajji gave away 5 wides (twice). Did we deserve to lose. Oh yeah!!! Definitely, we played like a bunch of nambie pambies in such an important tournament
I dont think there is any player in this Indian team who has not proved his worth in T20 cricket or has not earned his place. they were the best 11 players India could have fielded.But when your best doen't perform it nonsense to hold captain responsible for that. Dhoni goes by his gut feeling and before this world cup that used to work well. In this WC it did not work. No one can have a formula that will work everytime and under every circumstance.So lets give Indian team get a break. Everyone in the team is a good player and they will bounce back very soon.
Sorry to say one player did not deserve to be included. He failed in IPL playing for KKR and in early stages of this world cup and that is Ishant sharma. He should have been replaced eithr by RP Singh or Jadeja. Both the later replaced Ojha and Irfan which was a big mistake. Ravinder's and RP Singh's inclusions were correct but not at the expense of Irfan.
india won the first t20 when cong was in power.rohit india lost because rohit sharma did not perform.
The two wide balls bowled by Harbhajan with both going for 4s made the difference in the end. It is wreckless bowling by him. Those 10 runs were a gift to England and that proved decisive at the end.
Five bowlers were selected for the match. But still Dhoni experiments with Yuvi. When RP Singh was most economical, it could not understood why he had not been allowed to bowl his full quota. Promotion of Jadeja is meaningless.Batsmen should be playing in settled batting order.Yuvi, if sent, on two down and Yusuf on three down would have more balls to play and once settled they could have played freely without pressure. It is high time Harbajan's role had to be reviewed. It is not enough to be economical alone but wickets are to be taken at the right time to put pressure on other team. Yes, in this match he has taken wickets at end overs but conceded crucial 10 wides. He is not consistent wicket taker in any form of Cricket at right time.Our reputed batsmen collapsed against short pitched balls. Atleast now Selection committee will realise that T20 is not always Bang Bang approach. Technique is also important.IPL is different. World Cup is different.
Dhoni is the one who blessed with captaincy without doing much for the team.........see his personal knocks in last few years and his records.....and his attitude is on the seventh sky....just busy in making ads and money from the same.....I personally missed VIRU very much in yesterday match.........
I welcome the humbling defeat of our cricketers at Twenty 20. Let Indians learn that there is life beyond cricket and criketers.Let the losers pave way for others who could win. Let heads roll. Dhoni should go.