Cardiff, Wales, Sept 14: India has a last chance to secure a win over the hosts on its ill-fated tour of England when the teams meet in the fifth and final match of the one-day series on Friday.
England has won the series 2-0, but India was closer than ever to that elusive victory in the rain-affected fourth one-dayer at Lord's.
The match was tied, with James Anderson and Steven Finn at the wicket with neither having faced a ball. Only the injured Stuart Broad was left in the pavilion and unable to bat to avoid risking further damage to his torn shoulder muscle.
Broad will be out for six weeks, while England was already missing Eoin Morgan with a shoulder injury.
Although the series has been decided, the fifth game promises to be closely matched now that India has found form by introducing some new batsmen, attacking spin bowlers and fresh legs in the field.
For one of the few times on this tour all India's players are fit and present. Highly-rated Varun Aaron, the 21-year-old pace bowler, could win a place in the side.
If World Cup winner India can claim victory in Cardiff, it will prevent England from taking its No. 4 ranking.
The game will also provide India coach Duncan Fletcher a chance to end a humiliating tour on a high note. The former England coach, who succeeded Gary Kirsten in April following India's World Cup win, has a two-year deal and may be wondering how the India cricket board will regard his part in the defeats in both the test and one-day series.
By contrast, Andy Flower's England team have looked like champions all summer. England has won 12 out of the 14 bilateral series since Flower took charge in January 2009, including one-off matches against Ireland and Scotland. The two losses were both 6-1 one-day series defeats to Australia after Ashes triumphs in 2009 and 2010-11.
It will be an action-packed week for England batsman-wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter. After trying to secure a 3-0 victory for England, he plans to drive 241 kilometers (150 miles) from Cardiff to London after the game to play for his county side Somerset in Saturday's domestic one-day final against Surrey at Lord's.
Kieswetter is then due to fly 4,800 miles to India on Sunday for Somerset's Champions League Twenty20 match against Auckland Aces which starts in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Head to head
Played 75: England 32, India 38, Drawn 2, No Result 3.
In England 32: England 17, India 11, Drawn 1, No Result 3.
At Cardiff
England: Played 3, Won 1, No Result 2.
India has never played an ODI in Wales.
England's only win was against Australia in 2010. The other two washed out games were against Pakistan in 2006 and South Africa in 2008, both day-night matches late in the summer. Rain is forecast for Friday.
Only one player has scored an ODI hundred at Cardiff—Mohammad Ashraful scored exactly a hundred off 101 balls as Bangladesh chased down 250 to beat world champions Australia in 2005.
Star players
England
This is Ravi Bopara's 12th and possibly final chance to establish himself in the one-day side. Undoubtedly the Essex connection has helped, with both team director Andy Flower and batting coach Graham Gooch aware of his all-round talents. He had the chance to score his first ODI hundred at Lord's on Sunday in front of a packed house, but holed out to deep mid-wicket off what turned out to be the last ball of the match.
In 63 ODIs, the 26-year-old Bopara has scored 1443 runs at 30.06, with six half-centuries. He has a strike rate of 74.38 and 13 wickets at 35.30. He can sometimes be a careless runner and has been involved in 14 runouts in his career, with his partner dismissed 11 times.
India
This will be Rahul Dravid's 344th and final ODI as he retires from one-day cricket at the end of the match. Pundits expect him to retire from test cricket at the end of the fourth test against Australia at Adelaide in January, by which time he will be 39.
On this tour he has shown the youngsters how to bat against England's strong pace attack on helpful wickets, with three centuries in the test series when no other India player passed 91. In ODIs he has 10,820 runs at 39.06 with 12x100, 82x50 and a strike rate of 71.19. In addition he has taken 196 catches and made 14 stumpings. His one-day swansong has been unimpressive to date with scores of 2, 32, 2 and 19 so far in this series. AP
