Chester-Le-Street: India’s quest for a morale-boosting victory was today dashed after persistent rain forced abandonment of their first cricket One-Dayer against England after the visitors found themselves in a comfortable position here on Saturday.
India had made 274 for seven, riding mainly on opening batsman Parthiv Patel’s fluent 95, after being put into bat and had reduced England to 27 for two from 7.2 overs before the rain came and no further play was possible.
Twice it appeared the rain had relented and play after all would be possible as England, under revised targets, were first asked to make 224 from 32 overs and later 164 from 20 overs.
The umpires finally called off the match.
It was a spirited performance from the visitors who missed Sachin Tendulkar at the start of the day and middle-order bat Rohit Sharma in the middle of their innings.
India began the defence of their competitive total in superb fashion with Praveen Kumar accounting for both the openers, skipper Alastair Cook (4) and Craig Kieswetter (6).
The two new ball bowlers, Praveen Kumar and Vinay Kumar, made run-making an arduous task for England batsmen who had made only 27 from 7.2 overs before rain chose to have the final say.
Earlier, Parthiv struck a fluent 95 to steer India to a competitive 274 for seven after they were put into bat in overcast conditions.
The left-hander, who was a last minute inclusion in the team due to an injury to Sachin Tendulkar, missed out on what could have been his maiden ODI century by five runs. Patel, whose 95 was his highest ODI score, shared two productive stands of 82 and 103 runs for the first and second wickets with ODI debutant and opener Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli. (PTI)