Close India 221 for 6 (Tendulkar 68, Sehwag 51, Hoggard 3-52) beat England 217 (Vaughan 43, Agarkar 4-34) by 4 wickets with 20 balls to spare
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India took a 2-1 lead in the six-match series after threatening to choke in the Chennai heat. Cruising at 107 for 0 in the 19th over with Sachin Tendulkar in full flow, they lost 5 for 67 in the face of an inspired spell of three wickets in six balls from Matthew Hoggard, but regained their composure to snuff out England's hopes. It might have been different if James Foster, diving low to his left, had clung onto an edge offered by Hemang Badani off Andrew Flintoff when the score was 176 for 5, but when that went down, so did England's heads.

In truth, England's 217 didn't deserve to win. The pitch was firm and bouncy, the sun was shining and they had raced to 42 for 0 at a run a ball. But they collapsed like the England of old and then played wastefully towards the end, leaving two overs unused. An extra 15 runs would have put India's brittle order under even more pressure.

As it was, they were given the perfect platform by another tour de force from Tendulkar and a classy half-century from Virender Sehwag. Tendulkar shot out of his blocks on the P of "Play", and hit a bemused Darren Gough out of the attack: his first three overs were cut, driven and pulled for 31. One shot - a wristy flick through square leg off a regulation off-stump delivery - reduced Gough to an admiring grin.

From 40 for 0 after five overs, India could afford to nudge the ball around, and for a while they did. But when Tendulkar took three fours off a Hoggard over with a back-foot cover punch, a square-drive and an ingenious one-handed swat over midwicket, and then added a single, he had moved to 50 off 44 balls.

The masterclass was not wasted on Sehwag. He brought up the 100 with an oh-so-easy chip over midwicket for a one-bounce four off Ben Hollioake and moved to his own half-century, from 51 balls, by carting Snape over square leg. But when he tried to murder the next delivery too, he picked out Marcus Trescothick in cow corner (107 for 1).

While Tendulkar was still there, it didn't matter. But with the score on 130, he played round a slow, full delivery from Snape, and was plumb lbw for 68. As ever when Tendulkar falls, the crowd sat in stunned silence: on this occasion, it may have been because most of them could have kept that ball out.

VVS Laxman and Dinesh Mongia prevented the tremor registering on the Richter scale. But the game changed again when Hoggard was brought back for the 36th over. He bowled Laxman for 26 with his slower ball (165 for 3), kept his head when he was pulled for six by Mongia, and found the outside edge on the way through to Foster. Mongia was out for 21 - Hoggard told him so too - and India were suddenly 172 for 4.

In his next over Hoggard got one to bounce and Sanjay Bangar, on 1, fended it off the shoulder of the bat to Trescothick at first slip. That made it 174 for 5, and England were cock-a-hoop, although Hussain protested long and hard when the umpires insisted - fairly - on changing the ball because the batsmen were having trouble seeing it. But when Flintoff found Badani's outside edge with the game in the balance, Foster was unable to cling on. It felt like a turning point.

Badani and Ajay Ratra rode their luck, and Ratra played some cool drives under pressure as the gap narrowed and England, a bowler light after Hollioake left the field sick, were forced to go for the jugular. After the main bowlers had finished their spells, there simply wasn't enough juice left in the tank. Gough had Badani caught behind for 12, but by that stage India needed just 17. There were to be no more hiccups.

England's innings had lurched around like a drunk in search of last orders: they started well, fell to pieces, almost put them back together again, then crumbled once more. A total of 217 on a good strip that offered bounce and a little turn was well below par after Nasser Hussain had won his first toss of the series. But it was more than they expected from 125 for 6, at which stage you wondered whether the lights would need to be turned on at all.

The architects of the mini-revival were Ben Hollioake and Snape, who added 70 face-saving, but never entirely comfortable, runs for the seventh wicket to give England some sort of total to defend. Hollioake went down regally on one knee to swat Anil Kumble over midwicket for six, but was never at his fluent best. Even so, the pair were set to take England to around 235 when things started to go wrong again. Snape was bowled for 38 by Ajit Agarkar as he slogged across the line (195 for 7); Hollioake miscued Sanjay Bangar to extra-cover for 37 (202 for 8); Gough missed a mow that was conceived in the WWF changing-rooms and was bowled by Agarkar for 7 (216 for 9); and Hoggard was so excited about getting bat to ball that he was run out for 1 attempting a non-existent second. England had been dismissed in 48 overs.

Under Kumble's leadership India were a more cohesive unit in the field. Their shot-stopping was their best of the series, and they strangled the middle order like professional hitmen. Pick of the bowlers was Agarkar, who mixed nip with aggression, found some reverse-swing, and snared four wickets for the sixth time in ODIs.

It was he who made the vital breakthrough. Nick Knight had already slogged Javagal Srinath's slower ball to midwicket for 10 (42 for 1), but Marcus Trescothick was batting as if someone had put spinach in favourite sausages. He had slashed, thumped, and bruised his way to 36 off 33 balls when Agarkar dug one in. Trescothick tried to sway out of the line but gloved the ball to Ajay Ratra, and England were 53 for 2.

Eight runs later, Hussain was out too. His first international innings in the city of his birth was a frustrating affair. Starved of the strike early on, his eyes lit up when the debutant Bangar was introduced into the attack, but he could only lift his second ball to Harbhajan Singh at mid-on (61 for 3). Three wickets had fallen for 19, yet the collapse had only just begun.

Paul Collingwood was busy for a while, but he edged Harbhajan's arm ball to slip for 13 (90 for 4), and when Flintoff drove a return catch to Kumble for 8, it was 104 for 5. Flintoff's run of misery in India now consists of 68 runs in eight international innings.

Michael Vaughan had been oozing class with every straight push and late-cut, but when he leant back to fiddle Kumble to third man, he was surprised by the bounce and top-edged to backward point, where Tendulkar slid in athletically. Vaughan was out for 43 and England had lost 6 for 83. They never fully recovered.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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