A half-century by opener Virender Sehwag and swinging yorkers by rookie seamer Munaf Patel helped India beat England by nine wickets in the second Test on Monday, placing them 1-0 in the three-test series.
Chasing 144 runs for victory on the final day, India comfortably overhauled the target through a 105-run unbeaten second-wicket partnership between Sehwag (76 not out) and skipper Rahul Dravid (42 not out).
India scored 144 for the loss of opener Wasim Jaffer (17).
Sehwag and Dravid gave the English bowlers no chance to stage a comeback after the visitors had been bundled out for 181 runs in the second innings in the pre-lunch session. That gave India a modest victory target of 144 runs.
Sehwag started slow, but picked up the pace after India crossed 100 runs. His unbeaten knock was studded with nine fours and one straight six.
England skipper Andrew Flintoff blamed the loss of half the side for 112 runs for his team's defeat.
"We had to come back hard," he said.
Flintoff saved England from collapse with a superb half century in the morning, but that was not enough to save the Test for his side.
England was playing with a depleted side, with both regular skipper Michael Vaughn and seam bowler Simon Jones out with knee problems.
Vice-captain Marcus Trescothick also flew back to London to deal with a family matter.
Indian skipper Dravid praised debutante Patel for his speed and swinging yorkers which got him four wickets for 25 runs in England's second knock.
"England had shown in the Ashes series against Australia that if you play five bowlers, you can win some very good matches," Dravid said, referring to India's inclusion of five bowlers in the side for the second Test.
Resuming at the overnight score of 112 runs for five wickets, England lost three quick wickets to India's rookie seamer Munaf Patel in the first hour of play.
Patel clean bowled Geraint Jones for five, trapped Liam Plunkett leg before for 1 and bowled Matthew Hoggard for four.
However, a 42-run ninth wicket partnership between Flintoff (51) and Stephen Harmison (13) saved England from further embarrassment.
England was bowled out for 181 runs in its second innings as Flintoff holed out to Munaf Patel at long leg off leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, his first Test wicket on debut. Flintoff's 51 included five boundaries off 106 balls.
Captaining his side in the absence of Michael Vaughn, Flintoff scored 70 in England's first innings.
Leg-spinner Anil Kumble, who rattled England's top order on Sunday, claimed Harmison's wicket on Monday to finish four for 70 runs. He had reached the landmark of 500 wickets in his Test career in England's first innings by claiming five wickets for 76 runs.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but