Only one India-England one-dayer has ended in no result?
(24 January 2002)
Including the most recent match at Cuttack, 37 of the 38 India-England one-day internationals played have ended in decisive results, with England winning 20 and losing 17. The only no-result contest came about in 1996, when India toured England and played the ritual three-game Texaco Trophy before a three-Test series.
As it turned out, England would have preferred to play out the entire first match, whereas the tourists would have given fervent thanks for the rains that cut the Indian innings short after 17.1 overs and also forced the authorities to jettison play on the reserve day. Winning the toss, the English opted for first strike and used it well, piling up 291/8 in their 50 overs. The star for the home side was Graeme Hick, who showed flashes of his underused talent to hit 91 off 102 balls. Bits-and-pieces cricketer Mark Ealham, coming in at number eight, also hit 40 off 34 balls, boosting the total in the end stages of the innings.
Chasing 292 in their first international match of the tour, India started with a show off fireworks, with openers Vikram Rathour and Sachin Tendulkar taking 19 balls to hit 23 and 30 respectively. Tendulkar, in particular, looked in ominous touch, hitting five fours and a six before Peter Martin trapped him leg-before.
The plan of using Anil Kumble as pinch-hitter died when the leg-spinner departed without scoring. Wickets fell rapidly thereafter as a shocked Mohammad Azharuddin stood on the burning deck and saw his partners arrive and depart with metronomic regularity. Chris Lewis took 4-40 off 8.1 overs and was the chief architect of an Indian collapse to 68/5.
Rain interrupted proceedings at 73/5, and although play was resumed for another 4.1 overs, poor light forced the umpires to call off play. India, at the time, were 96/5, and although Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja had shared a shaky 28-run stand, the visitors never looked like winning the match from that position.
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