Bangalore, Feb 27 : Poor bowling and fiedling by Team India players snatched victory away on Sunday in a thrilling encounter against England.
With a sparkling century by Sachin Tendulkar, India were 338 all out in 49.5 overs. The English team replied with captain Andrew Strauss leading the charge with a rousing century.
Zaheer Khan saved India by scalping three vital wickets, as India was staring at defeat.
India just managed to contain England to 338/8 after Andrew Strauss' magnificent 158 as their World Cup clash ended in a tie at Bangalore
Zaheer Khan took 3 quick wickets before Harbhajan Singh took one to reduce England to 289/6 in 45.2 overs in their World Cup clash at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Sunday.
Harbhajan had Matt Prior caught by substitute Suresh Raina for the eighth England wicket in the over after Zaheer clean bowled Paul Collingwood with a slower delivery.
This was after Zaheer dismissed Ian Bell and Andrew Strauss off consecutive deliveries.
England were cruising at 280/2 when Strauss took the batting powerplay and Indian captain MS Dhoni brought Zaheer Khan back in the attack.
Zaheer first had Bell (69) caught by Virat Kohli at mid-off and on the bext delivery trapped Strauss plumb in frontn of the wicket by a scorching yorker.
Strauss went for the review but the replays confirmed his dismissal as the ball had hit his left leg and would have crashed into middle and leg stump.
Strauss departed after a magnificent 158 that came off 145 balls and was studded with a six and 18 fours.
Bell reached his fifty off 45 balls and added 170 runs for the third wicket with his captain.
Strauss' century came off 99 balls and it was his sixth ODI century but first in the World Cup.
Piyush Chawla trapped Jonathan Trott plumb in front of the wicket to give India the second breakthrough.
Trott failed to read a googly and was so plumb that England didn't consider going for the UDRS.
Strauss' run-a-ball half-century came after Munaf Patel gave India the first breakthrough when he took a fumbling return catch to dismiss Kevin Pietersen.
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.
