That brings an end to another madcap game between these two sides. If they keep producing games like this, we might have a collective outbreak of missing nails among cricket fans by the time the series is over. Here's hoping for more of these close finishes, though some good cricket to boot won't be bad either. On behalf of the gang at Cricinfo, this is Nitin Sundar signing off. On your way out, do check Sid Ravi's report as it gets updated here. Cheers and bye!
Rohit is the Man of the Match. A really good innings from him, despite the untimely dismissal. "The idea was to play through out the innings, but unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it. But it doesn't matter now, we won the game. I needed support from Jadeja at that stage, we played to a plan and he batted brilliantly. Even Vinay Kumar batted really well. I didn't have much cricket after my injury, but luckily did well in the Ranji games. I am glad I got an opportunity under pressure and managed to pull it through."
Sehwag: "I was sitting in the same place and not moving! Good to win another nail-biter. Whatever you tell No. 10 or No. 11, they always do what they want to do. I just told them to play till the end and whatever happens is fine. Rohit and Jadeja batted really well in that partnership and we should have won it easily from there, but still good to end up winning. Hope to learn from our batting mistakes in the coming games."
As @Crownish points out, the whole of Orissa seems to be out there on the dais for the presentation.
Sammy: "Everytime you lose it is quite disappointing. We just didn't have the last spark to take us past the finish line. The opening bowlers did well to give us a start and we fought all the way to the end, but it wasn't enough. We could have done things differently, we even bowled 23 extras, but I would like to commend the boys."
Rohit leaps and releases his pent-up tension with an expletive that isn't good news for someone's sister. We have had two great finishes, but do spare a thought for my poor colleague Sid Ravindran who is just about starting on his final match report! He was on report duties for the Wankhede Test as well. A great finish, brought about by some hideously poor cricket from both sides. Only Sammy knows why he was bowling this over. Russell has been the better bowler today, and he should have been the first-choice. Sammy conceded two fours to the worst batsmen in the India side. Game over.
"True buddies.. Aaron and Yadav.. same number of wkts and same runs," says Bhushan.
Sitanshu: "Take that Graeme Swann! And you want ODIs to be abandoned?" There's a reason for that Sitanshu. See where England are in the Test and T20 ratings? And where they are in the one-day ratings? Easy choice for Swanny really.
END OF OVER:48 | 2 Runs | IND: 203/9 (9 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 4.22, RRR: 4.50)
- Varun Aaron1 (9b)
- Umesh Yadav1 (6b)
- Anthony Martin6-1-35-1
- Daren Sammy8-1-30-1
Umesh has a word with him. "So will we run this time?"
Slip and short leg in place. 15 balls gone without a run, and two wickets have gone.