Raina and Kohli takes India to 4-0 lead

India makes it 4-0 as the England team failed one again in the ongoing series. India won the 4th ODI with comprehensive 6 wickets at Mumbai on Oct 23. Where the host extends their lead to 4-0 and will be aiming to clean the series with 5-0. 

England 220/10 46.1 Overs (Bresnan 45 and Kevin Pietersen 41, Varun Aaron 3/24)

India 300/5 49.2 Overs (V Kohli 86* and Raina 80)

Man of the Match – Suresh Raina 80 (62)

Suresh Raina’s aggressive 80 from 60 balls and Virat Kohli’s well paced innings of aggression and clam 86* guided India to yet another win the series. Kohli and Raina recued the Indian innings as they were 46/3 when they started together and Team India was in all sorts of trouble losing all the top 3 and Raina, who is finding it hard to hit the into gaps in the series joined the party with man in form, Virat Kohli.

Earlier England won the toss and elected to bat, Craig Kieswetter started counter attack to Indian pacers but both the openers felt back-to-back delivers from Ashwin and P Kumar.  Pietersen and Trott then rescued the England innings adding 73 runs. Vinay Kumar broke the partnership and then spinners showed act by cleaning up the middle order of England and new debutant Varun Aaron was impressive with his pace rattled the tail enders.

In reply, India got off to a sloppy start as they lost three wickets with just 46 runs on the board.  Parthiv Patel and Gautam Gambhir were cleaned up by Finn, while Rahane was brilliant catch by Kieswetter. But the Raina and Kohli pace their innings very well rotating the strike early in their innings and putting the bad balls to boundaries. Soon both the batsmen completed their half-centuries from 65 (Kohli) and 50 (Raina) deliveries respectively.

Then Raina shifted the gears and clobbered the English pace attack to all parts of the ground but perished to Finn. Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni made sure India didn’t lose any further wicket and guided India to a comprehensive 6 wicket win.

India will play their final and 5th ODI against England at Eden Gardens on October 25, 2011.