Yuvraj, Rahul lord over England

England vs India
Lord's
Game Two - Scorecard

As every gap was picked and every bad delivery punished, a buoyant Yuvraj Singh, with his anxious mother watching from amongst the boisterous Indian crowds at Lord's, put together an innings of rare precision along with vice-captain Rahul Dravid as they paved the way for an extraordinary win against England.

The 131-run partnership for the fifth wicket gave India, chasing 272, victory by six wickets in their first game of the NatWest Tri-Series.

Man-of-the-match Yuvraj Singh showed remarkable calm as he picked three crucial English wickets and scored an undefeated 64 to begin the Indian campaign on a high note.

The youngster turned his arm over and by dismissing Nasser Hussain, Andy Flintoff and Graham Thorpe prevented England from reaching a total beyond 300 in the second match of the NatWest Tri-Series at the Lord's.

In the end, England, riding on the back of a flying opening stand, managed to score 271-7 in their 50 overs.

Playing with an unchanged side, England seemed to be in high spirits after their convincing win in the first game against Sri Lanka. India sprang some surprises, dropping V V S Laxman and left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra and going in with both spinners Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble in conditions that were expected to help seam bowling.

The English openers Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight thanked skipper Hussain for winning the toss by driving the innings to a screaming start.

"Leading the attack is a big responsibility," Ajit Agarkar had said before the series. "It will be different from what I've experienced before, when [Javagal] Srinath and [Venkatesh] Prasad were around, but I think we will all enjoy that, actually. It's time to stand up and be counted."

After an opening six-over spell that cost him 40 runs, the wiry fast bowler had failed to slip into the role. Zaheer Khan, who opened the attack from the nursery end, mixed up his lengths, but was unable to restrict the openers on a dry, flat wicket loaded with runs.

Eng innings progress
Overs	Runs scored	Total	Wkts
10	55	55	-
20	68	123	1
30	44	167	1
40	56	223	3
50	48	271	2

England coach Duncan Fletcher, having realised that the key to scoring runs in the tourney would be handling the Indian and Lankan spinners, had all England's batsmen practising reverse sweeps and paddle shots in the nets. The results showed as Trescothick perfected the slog-sweep and dispatched the ball to the boundary, with Nick Knight taking the backseat in a partnership that fetched 86 runs.

England lost their first wicket in the 14th over when Trescothick pushed Knight for a second run and the latter was beaten by Tendulkar's zipping throw from deep square leg to the non-striker's end.

Nasser Hussain came in at number three and kept up with the scoring pace set by the openers, looking to attack the spinners who were introduced into the attack before 15 overs were bowled.

Trescothick punctured the Indian attack, sending the ball crashing into the advertising boards with his slog-sweeps and crisp drives, scoring 29 of his 86 runs through the square-leg and mid-wicket region. In Hussain he found the perfect foil, rotating the strike and driving the ball with élan.

The pair added 67 runs in 77 balls before Trescothick, trying to nibble at a gentle outswinger from Ganguly, gave Dravid, standing up to the stumps, a sharp catch. But his 78-ball 86 had set the momentum for the English innings as they seemed set for a total beyond 300, with the scoreboard at his dismissal reading 153 for 2 in the 27th over.

England promoted Andy Flintoff, man-of-the-match against Sri Lanka, ahead of Graham Thorpe and the move appeared to have been vindicated as the run-rate kept increasing.

India found a saviour in part-time left-arm spinner Yuvraj Singh, who tempted Flintoff, who had made a quickfire 22, to step out and drive uppishly to Dinesh Mongia in the covers.

Having crossed the 200-run mark in the 34th over, England seemed to have done a good job despite losing Flintoff, who was involved in a 48-run partnership off just 45 balls with Hussain.

It is baffling to note that Thorpe, easily one of England's finest batsmen, is yet to score a one-day hundred. Today, after thrashing a ball to the mid-wicket fence, he cut a long hop from Yuvraj Singh straight to Virendra Sehwag at backward point.

At 217 for 4 in the 38th over, the English batsmen seemed to be frittering away their good start.

Hussain completed a well-compiled fifty before Yuvraj struck for the third time. The England skipper, looking to smash him through the covers, missed the ball and Dravid completed an easy stumping.

The threat of having to chase a total of more than 300 runs was then banished by some intelligent Indian bowling as England had lost its top five batsmen for 222 runs with the final 10 overs yet to be bowled.

Spurred on by Yuvraj Singh's heroics, seamers Agarkar and Zaheer Khan came back for a superb second spell, as runs became a luxury for the English batters. Alec Stewart, the wrong batsman to have in the slog overs, struggled to cope with Agarkar's reverse-swinging yorkers and Zaheer's varying lengths. Ronnie Irani was run out and Paul Collingwood, looking to up the rate, hit a vertical shot for Dravid to swallow the skier.

England finally ended their innings at 271 for 7, leaving India to get a total that had been chased successfully only once before at Lord's, and that too in a 55 overs game.

India realised the futility of having picked two spinners on a wicket that asked for a third specialist seamer. Between Kumble and Harbhajan, England scored 96 runs of their 20 overs without getting a single wicket. It took a part-timer to get India the required breakthrough and clamp down on the English onslaught.

Indian innings:

Sourav Ganguly and Virendra Sehwag walked out to the middle chasing the daunting English total knowing well that the entire innings rested on their opening act.

After getting a measure of the pitch, Sehwag picked James Kirtley for a sublime cover-drive off the back-foot and followed it up with a flicked four over the infield. Matthew Hoggard, who was unable to swing the ball in his first spell, saw a delivery go screeching over his head on its way to the fence; the same bowler was then sent packing through mid-wicket for another boundary. There was the odd flash outside the off stump, but the recovery from gaffes was graceful for a batsman fighting to break free of the 'second Tendulkar' tag.

The Indian opening pair piled up a 109-run partnership, as Sehwag brought up yet another half-century off just 49 balls with his eighth boundary. Ganguly at the other end paled in comparison.

In the 17th over of the innings, Paul Collingwood dropped Sehwag off a leading edge off the bowling of Ronnie Irani, but England didn't pay too heavily for the blunder as Trescothick took a blinding catch on the mid-wicket fence in the very next over. Sehwag going down on his knees swept left-arm spinner Ashley Giles to the fence before Trescothick diving to his right finished a top-quality catch.

India then lost #3 Dinesh Mongia quickly when he was beaten by a Giles delivery outside his off stump that came back in to crash into his stumps. Sachin Tendulkar walked out with his customary glance at the sky, but failed to make a mark on the match. With an inswinger that had the curl of a comma Tendulkar was trapped in front by seamer Ronnie Irani for one.

At that stage India had lost three wickets for nine runs and at 118-3 it seemed that only an extraordinary innings would propel India towards the win.

Minutes later, James Kirtley produced a moment of magic in the field to peg the Indians back further. Running to his left on the long-on boundary, Kirtley plucked the ball just inches off the ground with his left hand to bring about a sensational catch and send the Indian skipper back.

India were struggling at 141-4 in the 28th over even as Ganguly refused to budge in disbelief. India needed another 131 runs to seal victory and had vice-captain Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh at the crease.

Ind innings progress
Overs	Runs scored	Total	Wkts
10	58	58	-
20	55	113	2
30	34	147	2
40	60	207	0
48.5	65	272	0

Hussain wheeled Irani and Giles through the middle overs with spells broken only by skilful bursts from Flintoff and Kirtley. Yuvraj seemed a little rusty and low on confidence, having failed in the side games while Dravid coasted steadily.

With his feet anchored to the worn patch of the crease, Yuvraj unleashed two fierce boundaries off Hoggard and Flintoff straight down the ground. And with those two shots began one of the finest batting performances from an Indian pair outside the subcontinent.

A hook off Flintoff and the equation for India was pretty simple -- 65 off the last 10 overs with six wickets in the kitty. Converting the singles into two and stealing non-existent singles, the Indian pair gave an amazing display of some fine running between the wickets.

Driving Flintoff off the square for a single, Yuvraj reached his third half-century in his last five innings off a mere 54 deliveries with six boundaries. With his third four of the innings, Dravid too reached his 37th half-century off 73 balls in the same Flintoff over. India at 234-4 in 45 overs needed another 38 runs from 30 deliveries.

Slapping Kirtley back down the ground for another boundary, Yuvraj stamped his authority on the match before Dravid took over the task of finishing off the game. Having built an innings with 30 singles, Dravid began to hit boundaries in a flurry, bringing up the 100-run partnership with a flicked four through mid-wicket.

Off the penultimate over of the innings Yuvraj straight-drove Hoggard for two, sauntered through for a single, and let Dravid take the strike to finish the game. Dravid played a lofted drive over mid-off for a boundary. In his next delivery, Hoggard overstepped as the duo scampered through for a single to register a great Indian victory. Yuvraj stayed undefeated on 64 while Dravid with his late assault on the fence was not out 73.