India finally got their act together and beat England by 23 runs in the third and final One-Day International at Lord's on Sunday.
After Sourav Gangully's gutsy 90, the bowlers connived to dismiss England for 181 and earned India a morale-boosting victory ahead of the Champions Trophy.
England won the three-match series 2-1, with Steve Harmison claiming the man of the series award.
For his fine knock, Sourav Ganguly was adjudged the man of the match
Earlier, India were restricted to a paltry 204 runs by some superb bowling from Steve Harmison.
Sourav Ganguly, 90, and Rahul Dravid, 52, came up with dour knocks to lend some respectability to the Indian total.
India innings
The home side, bidding for a 3-0 sweep in the series, made one change to the side that beat India by 70 runs in the second one-dayer at The Oval on Friday. All-rounder Andrew Flintoff, whose fiancee is expecting their first child, was rested and made way for Anthony McGrath.
India made three changes, bringing in batsman Dinesh Karthik, wrist spinner Anil Kumble and left-arm fast bowler Ashish Nehra for Rohan Gavaskar, Ajit Agarkar and Lakshmipathy Balaji.
India won the toss and opted to bat on a good batting wicket. Pakistan and Australia played on the same wicket on Saturday and scored a total of 528 runs. The pitch was dry and there was virtually no moisture around; perfect batting conditions for the Indians.
The Indians did not just go into the match with two spinners but also made wholesale changes in the batting order. The first of which was the promotion of V V S Laxman to the opener's slot.
Ganguly and Laxman started in a controlled manner. Laxman, on 2, got a huge slice of luck when umpire Jeremy Lloyd failed to hear a huge snick with India on 9. In the four innings as opener before this, Laxman averaged 11.25.
After five overs, India had reached 15. The opening experiment was certainly not working.
Things got worse when Laxman (9 off 27) came down late on a Harmison yorker and was clean bowled. Ganguly, at the other end, had been getting quite a few of these yorkers and one would have thought that Laxman would be on guard as well. But he wasn't and paid the ultimate price. (24 for 1)
Occasionally, Ganguly would step out of his crease and play with the glory of old -- the result was a massive six off Darren Gough and two fours. But, other than that, there was little excitement as the Indians made a sedate start.
The England bowlers were consistent. They didn't need to try anything funny given the current form of this Indian team.
Mohammad Kaif, batting once again at number three, had two successive half-centuries to his name, but today was not going to be his day. Ganguly pushed Ashley Giles towards short mid-wicket and set off for a quick single, but he hit the ball straight to Paul Collingwood, one of England's best fielders. Kaif (2) did not respond to the call and Geraint Jones whipped the bails off with both batsmen stranded at the same end. (48 for 2)
The duo had put on 22 runs.
Disaster struck again in the same over. Virender Sehwag was next to walk in and go in the space of two deliveries. After facing just one ball, he pushed at a ball with hard hands and lobbed it straight back to a delighted Giles. (48 for 3)
Sehwag needs to sort out matters in his head. For a player who relies heavily on hand-eye co-ordination, he needs to have confidence in his abilities. The best way to get his confidence back is to go back to Ranji Trophy, bat on the batting-friendly Indian wickets and score runs; lots of runs.
At the 15-over mark, India were struggling at 51 for 3.
Ganguly reached 50 off 76 balls and the team's total at this point was 79.
Dravid joined his skipper and the two put on a 93-run partnership off 135 balls to get India back into the match.
Dravid was a picture of concentration. He was determined to stay at the wicket, so much so that his first 27 scoring shots were all singles. But at least he was trying his best, something that could not be said of all the Indian batsmen.
But with Dravid battling at the wicket, Ganguly was robbed of whatever momentum he had built up and was dismissed ten short of his century when he pulled straight to Michael Vaughan off Steve Harmison. (141 for 4)
His 90 off 119 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes was the cornerstone of the Indian innings.
Once he was gone, the others perished quickly.
Yuvraj Singh (9), Dinesh Karthik (1), Harbhajan Singh (0) were quickly back in the hut as India slumped to 182 for 7.
Dravid, not yet back to his best, tried to salvage the innings but he too was gone after scoring 52.
Irfan Pathan tried to score some quick runs towards the end and helped India reach 200. In the process he became just the third Indian batsman after Ganguly and Dravid to reach double figures.
India were eventually bundled out for 204 in 49.3 overs, the third time in as many matches the team has failed to last the fifty overs.
Harmison was brilliant, claiming a career-best 4 wickets for 22 runs. Darren Gough (2 for 41) became the first England bowler to claim 200 wickets in ODIs.
England should wrap this match easily. India will be hoping for a miracle. Unless that happens, they just don't have a chance.
England innings
At the end of the Indian innings, I thought given England's fine showing in the last two matches, the visitors needed a miracle to pull off a victory. That's exactly what they delivered.
The Indian bowlers fought back superbly, though rather unexpectedly. The fielders supported them with a brilliance that had been sadly missing in the last few games.
After being restricted, the Indians came out an inspired lot. Obviously someone had done a lot of talking during the break; it paid dividends.
Ashish Nehra, back after being dropped in the last game, did the early damage by getting rid of the openers. Then, Irfan Pathan followed it up with a decisive spell to claim the next two wickets. Mohammad Kaif and Virender Sehwag contributed with the next two wickets and England were tottering at 64 for the loss of 6 wickets.
England openers Marcus Trescothick and Vikram Solanki were done in by Nehra. Trescothick pushed forward to a nice away-swinging delivery and Laxman took an easy catch at second slip. (5 for 1)
Vikram Solanki then top-edged a short ball to Harbhajan Singh at fine leg (22 for 2).
Andrew Strauss (2) and Anthony McGrath (2) were both trapped lbw by Pathan in identical fashion.
Strauss played forward to a delivery that moved into him against his judgment and trapped him right in front of the wickets.
Vaughan at the other end was the sole survivor. He had been totally out of form and his innings mirrored that of Rahul Dravid. It was laborious, with occasional shots of brilliance that showed his true class.
Nehra and Pathan did exactly what their skipper would have hoped for. They were accurate, bowled with pace, fire and energy. One doesn't know what they did different during the lunch break but they sure could use a dose of that in every match.
Vaughan and Paul Collingwood saw off the marauding opening bowlers. However, for once India had two specialist spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, waiting to take them on.
But it wasn't one of the spinners who made the next breakthrough.
Collingwood (4) was run out after Mohammad Kaif, at short leg, came up with the extraordinary. Collingwood charged down the wicket to Harbhajan. Collingwood flicked the ball off his legs to the off-side, where Kaif's superb reflexes helped him stop the ball and get it back to the wicketkeeper Karthik in a jiffy. Collingwood was caught well out of his crease as Karthik whipped off the bails. (48 for 5)
Geraint Jones (11 off 6 balls), who with Andrew Flintoff had tormented the West Indies in the recent series, looked to attack from the word go. But then he tried one shot too many. After hitting Kumble for a six and a four, he hit one from Harbhajan to Sehwag, at mid-wicket, who moved forward to take a superb diving catch (62 for 6).
England were down and out, but India allowed them to get back into the match through Giles and Vaughan. The duo put on 92 runs, with Giles contributing 39 off 62 balls.
The match still looked in England's grasp and suddenly it seemed as if the tables had turned on the Indians. But there was yet another twist.
Harbhajan Singh, bowling his final over, claimed both Giles and Vaughan in quick succession.
Almost everything that the Indians tried failed to get the wicket of Giles. In the end, a full toss did the trick. A simple full toss from Harbhajan was knocked straight back to him and India breathed a little easier. (154 for 7)
Four balls later, India got their reward of playing a specialist wicketkeeper. A fantastic stumping by Karthik sent Vaughan back. Harbhajan's delivery turned sharply to beat Vaughan, who had taken a few steps down the wicket. Karthik kept his eyes on the ball, collected it and somehow took the bails off even as Vaughan (74 off 141 balls including 8 fours) tried to make his ground. (155 for 8)
That was the final nail in England's coffin.
The rest succumbed quickly as India won by 23 runs to get their first victory in the NatwWest challenge. The win came too late to affect the result in the series, but a win is always welcome.
India's biggest gain from this match will be the bowling of Nehra, who ended up with three wickets for 26 runs, and the good form of Harbhajan.
The fielding was superb and perhaps the biggest difference between the recent disappointing performances and today was the energy displayed in the field.
Kartik looked his part behind the wicket and is known to be a good batsman. With Tendulkar not in the plan of things for the ICC Champions Trophy, India would do well to continue with this line-up and gently coax Sehwag into his best form.
