Ind vs Eng: Strauss leads England run chase

 The Times of India
NEW DELHI: Captain Andrew Strauss hit a run-a-ball half-century to keep England in the hunt in pursuit of 339 in their World Cup clash at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Sunday.
Strauss and Pietersen had brought up England's 50 in the eighth over before Munaf struck.
Pietersen hit a smashing straight drive towards Munaf who took evasive action but the ball hit his hands and lobbed up and a smiling Munaf completed the catch.
Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar's 120 and half-centuries by Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh powered India to 338.
India could have got more but lost Yuvraj and captain MS Dhoni in successive overs to be at 305/5 in 46.1 overs.
On the last ball of the 46th over,Michael Yardy had Yuvraj caught by Ian Bell at deep mid-wicket after the dashing southpaw scored 58 off 50 balls with the help of 9 fours.
On the first ball of the next over,Tim Bresnan had Dhoni caught by susbtitute Luke Wright at deep mid-wicket. Dhoni hit a six and 3 fours in his 25-ball 31.
Bresnan then dismissed Yusuf Pathan, Virat Kohli and Harbhajan Singh in one over to place India at 328/8 in 48.4 overs to register his maiden five-wicket haul.
James Anderson had Sachin Tendulkar caught by Yardy in the covers as India lost their third wicket with 236 runs on the board.
Tendulkar's 120-run knock came off 115 balls and was studded with 5 sixes and 10 fours.
Tendulkar hit his 47th century off 103 balls as India crossed the 200-run mark in the 35th over.
This is Tendulkar's fifth World Cup century - the most by any player in the world. Tendulkar achieved the landmark with a boundary to fine leg off Tim Bresnan.
This was after England off-spinner Graeme Swann clean bowled Gautam Gambhir (51) to place India at 180/2 in 29.4 overs.
Tendulkar and Gambhir added 134 runs for the second wicket as they got hold of the proceedings in the middle.
Tendulkar reached his fifty in style with a big heave over mid-wicket and once again it was Collingwood at the bowling end.
Tendulkar took India past 100-run mark with a fine lofty six, the first of the match, over mid-off on Collingwood's delivery.
Paceman Tim Bresnan provided England crucial breakthrough as he got rid of dangerous looking Indian opener Virender Sehwag in his first over of the day.
Sehwag was sent back to the pavilion with a fine diving one-handed catch by wicketkeeper Matt Prior.
Sehwag, who scored a quickfire 35 off 26 balls, slammed six boundaries during his short stay at the crease. Sehwag also became the third Indian to score 1000 ODI runs against England.
Opting to bat, Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar got off to a fine start against England.
Dashing opener Sehwag got a few close calls in the first over itself but he was lucky enough to survive.
Sehwag slashed the very first ball of the innings, which kissed Graeme Swann's hand at the third slip on its way to the boundary. Sehwag got another leading edge on James Anderson's delivery but it landed safely.
The explosive Sehwag continued his attack as he welcomed seamer Ajmal Shahzad with two more boundaries in the second over.
Earlier in the day, England seamer Stuart Broad was ruled out of the World Cup clash against India after being confined to bed for two days.
Seamer Ajmal Shahzad has been pencilled into the playing XI in pacer Stuart Broad's place while in the batting line-up, Michael Yardy has come in for Ravi Bopara.
On the other hand Piyush Chawla replaced S Sreesanth in India's playing XI, with Indian team going into the match with two specialist seamers and spinners.
"Good luck lads, gutted I'm not there. Will be watching from the bed I've not left for 2 days.. Never felt worse," Broad wrote on his Twitter account.

Kohli slams century, India set target of 371

Not lagging behind Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli too hit a century off 83 balls to take India's score at 370 during the World Cup opener today at Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.  Earlier, stylish Virender Sehwag completed his century, first against Bangladesh and in 2011 World Cup, in 94 balls to propel India towards a big total during the World Cup opener today at Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.Sehwag reached the century, his 14th in one-day internationals, with a single behind square off off-spinner Mahmudullah, in front of a stadium packed with 25,000 spectators. He hit nine fours and a six on his way to notch his second hundred in the World Cup.
Record-breaking Sachin Tendulkar was the first wicket to fall at the 2011 World Cup today when he was run-out following a crazy mix-up with opening partner Virender Sehwag against Bangladesh. Tendulkar, on 28,pushed the ball to mid-on and went for a quick single off the fifth ball of the 11th over of the tournament opener but Sehwag failed to respond leaving both men at the non-striker's end.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan threw in for wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim to remove the bails. Bangladesh's Mahmudullah got bowled Gautam Gambhir out on 39 runs to get India's second wicket.
Earlier, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and elected to bowl against India. For India, pacer Ashish Nehra are not playing in the Group B encounter due to a back injury.
The others who have failed to make the final playing XI for India are spinners R Ashwin and Piyush Chawla and batsman Suresh Raina.
In Bangladesh team, veteran batsman Mohammad Ashraful has been left out.
Teams:
India:Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c&wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.
Bangladesh:Shakib Al Hasan (c), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Mushfiqur Rahim, Raqibul Hasan, Naeem Islam, Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain.

World Cup 2011: Spin is much in demand

New Delhi: Teams at the World Cup appear to have reached a broad consensus that the best way to dismantle a rival batting order is to tie them in tangles, rather than subjecting them to a battery of bouncers.
Martin Crowe, captaining New Zealand in the 1992 World Cup, pulled off a masterstroke when he opened bowling with off-spinner Dipak Patel for what turned out to be a potent antidote to the prevailing tactic of hitting over the in-field in the first 15 overs.
Nearly two decades since that sensational improvisation, at least one team, Zimbabwe, has already decided to follow suit.
"For us, definitely it will be an option," Zimbabwe coach Alan Butcher said in Chennai where off-spinner Prosper Utseya opened the bowling with paceman Chris Mpofu in the warm-up match against South Africa.
"That has been part of our strategy last year or so, or probably before that. This is something we are used to. I will be surprised if before the end of the tournament other sides are not doing it," Butcher added.
"It has been used before in previous World Cups. The conditions would be suitable for that.”
"I`m not discounting the fact that we might open with two seamers and try and take advantage of the new ball. But our strategy has been to use at least one spinner with the new ball for some time. At the moment the conditions suggest, I probably won`t change that."
Besides, Zimbabwe do not have a pace attack that can give opponent batsmen sleepless nights, the burly coach argued.
"Over the last year, our spinners have been our best bowlers and I have seen they are improving. In any conditions, your best bowlers are your best options," he said.
Spinning Army
Like Zimbabwe, Bangladesh will also bank on their army of spinners to pull off upsets and see if that can take them to the knockout stage.
But it is not only the minnows who appear to prefer the guile of spin over the glamour of pace in subcontinental dustbowls.
India picked a third frontline spinner in Piyush Chawla, preferring the baby-faced leg-spinner to a second wicketkeeper in Parthiv Patel.
Even South Africa, which always looked at spin bowling with some amount of suspicion, have flown in three specialist tweakers -- Johan Botha, Robin Peterson and the Pakistan-born leg-spinner Imran Tahir.
Unleashing the uncapped Tahir at one-day cricket`s greatest stage might seem like a huge gamble but South Africa skipper Graeme Smith is confident the strategy will pay off.
"For me, it was his opportunity and he handled it well. He gave himself a great platform to hold on to," Smith said after the warm-up match against Zimbabwe in which Tahir claimed three wickets.
"In fact, all our spinners bowled well. It`s a very good thing, it`s a very good competition in the squad. It must be seen as a positive.”
"Tactically we have got a lot of options available for us, especially in spinning front."
The remaining doubts have also been erased by the Indian spinners who exposed Australia and New Zealand`s feet of clay against turning deliveries in the warm-up matches.
Against Australia, the Indian spinners claimed all but one wicket, while removing seven of the 10 New Zealand batsmen in the second warm-up match.