Indians lose to Kent by 21 runs

India on Monday suffered the first defeat of their England tour going down by 21 runs against Kent in a limited over warm-up match in Canterbury, five days ahead of the first triangular series tie against England.

Indians, chasing 285 runs to win, were all out for 263 in the 49th over with Mark Ealham and James Golding, a protégé of Indian coach John Wright, taking four wickets apiece.

Captain Sourav Ganguly (64) and Virender Sehwag (45) began the run chase in style racing to an opening stand of 85 from just 12 overs.

Golding earned the breakthrough when he claimed Sehwag to a catch at mid-off and then removed Sachin Tendulkar (15) and Yuvraj Singh (3).

Golding dismissed Tendulkar off an inside edge on a pull and then forced a top edge from Dinesh Mongia, which wicketkeeper Geriant Jones did well enough to run back and catch.

Another mistimed pull from Yuvraj ended in the hands of the fielder at midwicket.

Ganguly had made a workmanlike 64 from 75 balls with six fours and a six before he went for an impossible run to a placement on the offside.

The Indians struggled thereafter and were 214 for five at the end of 40 overs, still requiring 85 from the final 10 overs.

Rahul Dravid (34) and Harbhajan Singh (17) threw their bats at everything and enjoyed a bit of good fortune as well and narrowed the target to 38 from the last four overs.

But then both were out within an over to each other to dash the Indians' hopes of recording their second straight win of the tour.

Earlier, Kent chose to bat first on winning the toss and raced to a total of 284 due to good scores from Rob Key (76), Andrew Symonds (75) and Mark Ealham (74 not out).

Key and Symonds put on 128 runs for the second wicket from 125 balls but the Indian bowlers pulled back things in the middle overs before Ealham took charge scoring 74 from just 74 balls with five fours and five sixes.

Ealham exploded in Tinu Yohannan's eighth over, smashing 25 runs, including three sixes from the last three balls.

Spinners Anil Kumble (2 for 28) and Harbhajan Singh (2 for 56) did a good job of applying the brakes in the middle overs while left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan ended with four for 38 runs, picking up two wickets in an over twice.

However, Ealham's four lower order Indian wickets from just 11 balls made him an obvious choice for the man-of-the-match award.

Mail Cricket Editor