England fired up by Indian fans’ boos

Collingwood & Co were hurt and fired up after being jeered at home by Indian fans

England fired up by Indian fans' boos

Collingwood & Co were hurt and fired up after being jeered at home by Indian fans

It concerns motivation: After the match England captain Paul Collingwood thought it fit to indulge in typical British diplomatic understatement when he revealed that some of his players were "pretty hurt and fired up" after they were jeered before the game by Indian fans from the practice pitch to the dressing-room.

"It was a bit strange to be booed on our home ground, at the home of cricket, and I think it fired up a few people and hurt some. I didn't need to say anything, but it gave us the motivation we needed to put on a party piece," said Collingwood.

Another off-the-field factor was the selection of 20-year-old Ravindra Jadeja in preference to Pragyan Ojha and the dropping of Irfan Pathan to accommodate the out of form Ishant Sharma (he did not bag a single wicket in the tournament), whose fielding and overall athleticism, moreover, leave a lot to be desired.

Ojha had finished the group stage of the competition as highest wicket-taker (6). Irfan had performed creditably, if not outstandingly.

Dhoni tried to explain away the inexperienced Jadeja's inclusion in the playing eleven by saying that the Rajasthan Royals player is a better batsman than Ojha.

By sending Jadeja at number four, the team's brains trust seriously impeded the take-off of the Indian run machine.

To their credit, England were full of aggressive intent. They bowled in admirable disciplined manner and fielded like men possessed, Stuart Broad's catch on the ropes to dismiss the all-at-sea Jadeja being a gem.

In retrospect, Harbhajan Singh's profligate last over u2013 the 20th of the inning u2013 which cost 10 runs, through two five-run no balls, made the all-important difference, when you consider the wafer-thin three-run margin.

India's notoriously wretched fielding and running between wickets were, again, in embarrassing evidence.

Runs galore were gifted as the result of unathletic sprinting and slovenly pick-ups and throw-ins; and squandered because of a lack of sustained intensity when converting singles into twos and two to threes when batting.

Purple patch
As it turned out, Kevin Pietersen, whose Twenty20 performances to date have been at best mediocre for a batsman of his calibre, struck a purple patch in the must-win game.u00a0

To add to India's woes, James Foster, a controversial inclusion as wicketkeeper, brought about a lightning-quick stumping to send back Yuvraj Singh, just when the lusty hitter appeared to be steering his side to victory.

Swing bowler Ryan Sidebottom, astutely recalled to the team in place of spinner Adil Rashid, dealt mortal blows by sending back Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina with intelligent short-paced deliveries.

The England pace bowlers took a leaf out of the book of West Indian Fidel Edwards, who when taking three wickets for 24 in the Super Eights last week, had exposed the weakness of India's vaunted batsmen against rising balls directed at the rib cage.

England pace bowlers James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad sent down as many as 22 well-directed deliveries pitched just short of a good length while taking two wickets off them.

Suddenly promoting Jadeja to No 4 also did not make sense since the team's brains trust had been conditioning Dhoni and Raina for the crucial number three and four positions in the group and earlier Super Eight matches. (A former Indian Test cricketer described this as the "tu jaa, tu jaa" u2013 "you go first, you go first" - syndrome).

Moreover, the coming in of Jadeja at number four meant four left-handers Gambhir, Raina, Jadeja and Yuvraj Singh following each other in the batting order and, thereby, surrendering a vital advantage to the opposition.

Following Yuvraj's departure, Yusuf Pathan and Dhoni made a valiant bid for a last gasp victory, but it was all too little, too late by a whisker.

The damage had been done much earlier in the proceedings.

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