England skipper Alastair Cook was a relieved man after the fourth one-dayer against India ended in a tie, allowing his side to clinch the five-match series by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead on Sunday.
England were 270 for eight when the third and final rain intervention forced the match to end in a tie under the Duckworth-Lewis rule. © AFP |
"We ended up having to bat for the weather and with Duckworth-Lewis
ball by ball, it was an extremely tough situation for both the sides. I
think it probably was a fair result," said Cook.
"The way Ravi (Bopara),
Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann held their nerves and got us almost over
the line, and to win the series because of it, makes us delighted."
England were 270 for eight when the third and final rain intervention
forced the match to end in a tie under the Duckworth-Lewis rule.
"It's human. When you're ahead of the game and get to go off, you're
obviously going to be happier than the other team. It was quite clear
when we came off the first time we wanted to go back because we were
behind. When we came off second time, when we were ahead, if we are all
being honest we would have quite liked it to have rained for another
hour and we wouldn't have had the last few overs," he said.
Bopara, who was caught on the edge of the midwicket fence by Ravindra Jadeja, though was disappointed with the result.
"It's extremely disappointing that we didn't end up winning. I never
quite knew when to accelerate with the weather and big black clouds
lurking round the back there.
"But after Swanny got out, I wasn't thinking of just knocking it
about -- in case we left too much for ourselves -- so I took on the
shot, and it didn't come off.
"The fielder looked very casual at one stage and I thought 'well it's
gone over him then'. But he just back-tracked and when it was about 15
yards away from him, I knew he's going to get a hand to this, so let's
hope he puts it down," Bopara said after his knock of 96.
The batsman was more disappointed that he couldn't win the game for England than missing out on his maiden ODI century.
"I'm just down that I didn't finish the game. I want to win games for England, not tie games for England."
Stuart Broad was injured while bowling the final over and it was
later learnt that he had strained the upper tricep of his bowling arm.
But the bowler was padded up to bat if required.
"We don't know how bad is the injury. He will go for a scan tonight
or tomorrow and we'll see how it settles down over the next 24-48 hours.
"He was padded up, ready to go. I'm not sure how effective he would
have been but with a few pain-killers he might have been alright."






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