Dharamsala, Jan 27: A swashbuckling knock by Suresh Raina helped India reach a decent total of 226 in the fifth and final ODI against England after an inept batting performance by the top-order batsmen in bowling-friendly conditions, on Sunday.
Put into bat in conditions helpful for seam bowling, India were 79 for five before Raina (83) led a recovery act before the home team folded for 226 in 49.4 overs at the HPCA Stadium.
Raina, whose knock came off 98 balls, added 78 runs for the sixth-wicket with Ravindra Jadeja, to help the Indian total gain a semblance of respectability. Jadeja's contribution was 39 off 65 balls with a boundary and two sixes.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar also did his bit playing a little cameo of 31 runs that helped India cross the 225 run mark.
Raina, who was dropped twice on individual scores of 5 and 61, hit eight boundaries and two huge sixes.
Save those couple of blemishes, it was a treat to watch his strokeplay as the ball raced past the lightning quick outfield. Tim Bresnan was the pick of bowlers with figures of four for 45 while their premier fast bowler Steven Finn was miserly giving away 28 runs in 10 overs getting a couple of wickets in the process.
For India, the slide started in the fourth over when Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli got out in an identical fashion off successive deliveries from Bresnan. Bresnan bowled two fuller deliveries with a hint of away movement.
Both Sharma and Kohli went for cover drives without getting to the pitch of the deliveries and resultant thick edges flew to James Tredwell at second slip on both occasions.
While in case of Sharma, the off-spinner dived to his right to pull off an impressive catch, he did a fumble a bit before holding onto the catch offered by Kohli. The two batsmen were out for 4 and 0 respectively.
Yuvraj Singh made a mess of an innocuous delivery from Finn, which he thought would bounce but didn't get above the knee roll as the left-hander closed the face of his bat. The leading edge was a simple catch to Eoin Morgan at point.
The stage was set for Gautam Gambhir to make amends for his poor show in recent times and he did start off well with a boundary off Steven Finn.
During his 42-ball stay at the crease, he displayed two extremes. He looked ill at ease and circumspect whenever the lanky Finn banged it short but played two majestic shots off Bresnan — a cover drive followed by a straight drive past the bowler.
The senior opener should have carried on but on 24 he failed to dispatch a rank long hop from Tredwell. It was short and Gambhir played the square cut, which lobbed to Ian Bell at point.
At 49 for four, skipper Dhoni walked in and looked in good touch as he got a couple of boundaries with firm pushes through the cover region but got a raw deal when he was adjudged leg before by Steve Davis for 15. He stretched forward and the decision looked a dubious one.
At 79 for five, Jadeja joined Raina and the two in-form players started the damage control.
The spinners Tredwell, Joe Root and Samit Patel were attacked with equal vigour. Both Raina and Jadeja hit two sixes each but the best part was all were straight hits into the sightscreen.
