Cricket: And India Clinch The ODI Series Against England 3-1!

England’s record of ODI defeats in India got no better whey they lost the 18^thone in the last 20 one day internationals played in India in Mohali today. India defeated England by 5 wickets with more than 2 overs to spare in the fourth one day international--a match that was far from being one sided like the last two. England started a bit too cautiously perhaps and seemed to be headed for another lackluster batting display when Root (57 not out off 45 balls) in combination charge with Kevin Pietersen (76) and Buttler (14 off 9) plundered nearly 100 runs from the last 10 overs giving the innings (257 for 7 off 50 overs) some respectability. Captain Cook tried his best putting up 76, but he had consumed far too many balls for that. The Indian chase too was not without hiccups and it could have gone either way more than halfway through. It was basically thanks to the Player of the Match Suresh Raina (89 not out off 79 balls) who was overdue to fire for India that India made it look easy in the end.

Indian skipper Dhoni won the toss again and again took advantage of the wintry and foggy morning conditions in Mohali to seam England in. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (2 for 30 in 10 overs) fresh from his last encounters fired all cylinders bowling non-stop again and making run getting most difficult for England. Ishant Sharma too looked dangerous and only Shami Ahmed proved to be expensive. Later in the innings Ravindra Jadeja proved his newfound all-round ability by capturing 3 wickets for 39 runs in 10 overs. Despite good knocks by Cook and Pietersen England could not post a total in excess of 280 which could have proved to be toughly competitive.

Non-performing Indian opener Ajinkya Rahane was replaced by another non-performing ‘star’ Rohit Sharma who was not known as an opener either. Fortunately for Rohit the fog cleared by then and he could finally justify his selection with 83 good runs. Gambhir and Yuvraj fell early, and Kohli too could not repeat his coming-into-form performance of the Ranchi match. Suresh Raina batted through with cameo support from skipper Dhoni (19 off 21) and Jadeja (21 not out off 27) to take India to an invincible 3-1 lead over England. Except for pacer Finn (1 for 39 in 10 overs) who was unlucky not to get more wickets and spinner Tredwell (2 for 54 in 10 overs) other England bowlers could not bowl their team to a series saving victory.

Again, poor umpiring affected both teams almost equally. The fielding lapses too were evenly shared by the teams. It is again a thumbs-up for Dhoni in limited over cricket where he is still the best. The Scorecard:

The last match of the five-match India-England ODI cricket Series to be played on January 27 in Dharamsala is set to be remembered only for providing the coolest cricket environment, but unfortunately temperature there is reportedly improving fast.

The VIP Brat: A Study in Contrast!

Here we’re talking about only two compartments inside a particular AC 2-Tier coach in a particular daily train under the Indian Railways that departs a particular originating station at around noontime and reaches the destination city early morning the next day. The train is popular because it is superfast and always on time. That fateful noon too, the train was ready for boarding about one hour before departure. We cut to the inside of that particular coach having those two compartments for our contrasting study. Two elderly couples were in a state of considerable distress. One of them, both technically senior citizens, had been allotted two upper berths and the husband was at his wits end how to proceed, because his wife was being taken for check-up after surgeries in both of her knees—she could hardly walk and her climbing up the berth was a sheer impossibility. The husband was also on the wrong side of the sixties, but he thought he could manage the climbing once he managed a ...

Mitali: The Trauma of Losing a Sibling

Maybe I lied to her when I used to reassure her that she was going to be alright and was going to resume her life in some measure of normalcy in the future years; maybe all my gestures/expressions were false when I used to run my fingers across her forehead or embrace her on occasions when she was able to move around a bit; and maybe all my exhibitions of love care and responsibility were exposed as superficial when I failed to turn up in Delhi where she along with my mother were treated during September-October, 2022 (my mother Urmila Chakravarty was also diagnosed with dental cancer the same month the same year as she was) and when all the members of my parental family and the in-laws converged. Since that fateful day in August, 2022 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer to that disastrous day of March 6, 2025—the day my younger blood sister Mitali (Mainu) Chakravarty Sarma (November 2, 1963—March 6, 2025) passed away in the wee hours in a hospital in Guwahati after giving a bra...

Release of Book 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories'!

The fourth collection of stories titled 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories' by Chinmay Chakravarty has been released on Amazon KDP just now! This collection, short stories in a lighter vein plus with mild satire like the previous collections, has been published in both the E-book and Paperback formats. The links are given below: International: Click Here ! India: Click Here ! Other collections of short stories by the same author: The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales(2021)--Notion Press. Funny and Fishy Tales(2022)--KDP. The Weirdos(2022)--Ukiyoto Publishing. All books of the author are available on Goodreads, apart from Amazon and other outlets! Have a look!