Manchester, August 31
Ajit Agarkar bowled India back into contention with a four-wicket burst but the visitors could not deliver the knock-out punch and let England escape with a three-wicket win in the fourth cricket ODI here.

Chasing 213 for win, England fumbled and faltered before Stuart Broad (45) and Ravi Bopara (43) stitched together a record unbeaten 99-run stand for the eighth wicket to see the side through. Captain Paul Collingwood (47) topscored for the hosts.

This was after the famed Indian batting line-up had collapsed for 212 in 49.4 overs with Yuvraj Singh (71, 104b, 5x4, 1x6) and Sachin Tendulkar (55, 86b, 9x4) providing the resistance. Down the order, Zaheer Khan's 19-ball cameo of 20 helped India cross the 200-mark.

For England, the new ball pair of Broad (4-51) and James Anderson (3-38) shared seven wickets among them. Broad was later adjudged Man of the Match for his all-round show.

With this victory, the hosts have extended their lead to 3-1 in the seven-match series, which means India can't afford to lose the remaining games if they are to win the series.

Both the teams now move to Leeds for the fifth one dayer on Sunday.

The target of 213 was modest but England found itself in a complete mess with top half of the batting line-up back in the pavilion inside 17 overs and the team yet to reach the 100-mark.

Captain Paul Collingwood (47, 55b, 7x4), however, seemed unfazed by the series of setbacks as he maintained his sangfroid.

Despite Agarkar breathing fire and Ramesh Powar trying every trick in his bag, Collingwood was largely unperturbed till he brought his own peril while going for a non-existent single.

Bopara had pushed one to point and was reluctant to go for the run but his captain was adamant. Collingwood ran hard and dived full length but by then Mahendra Singh Dhoni had whipped the bails off after receiving RP Singh's throw.

England were 114 for seven at that stage but thanks to the Broad-Bopara pair, the Indians did not get any more chance to celebrate.

Earlier, Zaheer Khan drew first blood for India with the fifth delivery of the innings, which disturbed Alastair Cook's timberwork. And once Zaheer had made the early inroad, Agarkar took over, cutting a swathe through the English top order.

A match which had threatened to be a lop-sided tie, suddenly was brimming with new life as Agarkar came up with a four-wicket burst.

The pacer induced Matt Prior (4) for an uppercut that found Powar, at third man and that was just the beginning of a batting collapse.

Ian Bell (24) was once again settling into his familiar role as Team India tormentor when he decided to shoulder arm to one that, much to his horror, moved in and pegged back his off-stump.

And the twin success only whetted Agarkar's appetite as the Mumbai pacer then went on to scalp Kevin Pietersen (18) and Andrew Flintoff (5) to rock the English boat.

Pietersen's audacious pull ballooned up before Piyush Chawla got himself beneath it at square leg and then Flintoff slashed one

The hosts had barely crossed the 100-mark when Powar struck with his second delivery to get rid of Owaish Shah (8) and then Collingwood committed hara-kiri — his team still 99 runs away from the victory target and left with just three wickets.

Bopara and Broad not only stemmed the rot but also went on to seal the match in England's favour. — PTI 

Scoreboard

India:

Ganguly c Bell b Anderson 9

Tendulkar c Flintoff b Pietersen 55

Karthik c Prior b Broad 4

Dravid c Prior b Flintoff 1

Yuvraj b Broad 71

Dhoni b Panesar 13

Agarkar c Prior b Broad 6

Powar c Bell b Broad 7

Chawla not out 13

Zaheer c Collingwood b Anderson 20

RP Singh c Bopara b Anderson 0

Extras (LB-4, W-8, NB-1) : 13

Total (All out in 49.4 overs): 212

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-31, 3-32, 4-103, 5-140, 6-147, 7-178, 8-179, 9-210.

Bowling: Broad 10-1-51-4; Anderson 9.4-2-38-3; Flintoff 10-1-31-1; Panesar 10-0-39-1; Collingwood 9-0-43-0; Pietersen 1-0-6-1.

England:

Cook b Zaheer 0

Prior c Powar b Agarkar 4

Bell b Agarkar 24

Pietersen c Chawla b Agarkar 18

Collingwood run out 47

Flintoff c Yuvraj b Agarkar 5

Shah c Kaarthick b Powar 8

Bopara not out 43

Broad not out 45

Extras (lb-5, w-13, nb-1): 19

Total (For 7 wickts in 48 overs): 213

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-14, 3-35, 4-81, 5-95, 6-110, 7-114.

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 9-1-45-1; Ajit Agarkar 10-0-60-4; RP Singh 6-0-22-0; Piyush Chawla 10-0-43-0; Ramesh Powar 10-0-26-1; Yuvraj Singh 2-0-8-0; Sachin Tendulkar 1-0-4-0. 

Manchester, August 31
England's rookie all-rounder Stuart Broad said the moderate target eased the pressure on him and Ravi Bopara, the pair who rescued the hosts from certain defeat against India in the fourth one-dayer.

"We had plenty of time to bat so there wasn't any scoreboard pressure. We didn't need five or six (an over) where we needed to play outrageous shots," said Broad who came up with a fine all-round performance to guide England to a three-wicket win at Old Trafford yesterday.

"We could just play each ball on its merits and pick up runs that way. We kept talking to each other, kept it very simple and went down in 10s.

"When we got to 30-35 (remaining), Ravi said 'Come on, this is not many runs, we can do this if we keep playing'."

Broad, 21, took a career-best 4-51 as India were all out for 213 in the day-night encounter.

The Leicestershire all-rounder then grinded his way to 45 not out and put on 99 runs for the eight-wicket as England escaped to victory after slumping to 114 for 7. "It's a special day for me and the lads. It was great to go out there with Ravi," said Broad, savouring his moment.

"He was playing himself in and he's a very calm man. He's always talking to me and we were egging each other on.

"We've won the game and that's what we were aiming for. It was fantastic to be involved in that.

"It was great to get four wickets but more pleasing to win the game," the son of former England opening batsman Chris Broad said.

England captain Paul Collingwood, who top scored with 47, also showered lavish praise on the two young guns. "The performances by both of them were exceptionally special," he said. "There was a hell of a lot of pressure out there to go 3-1 up in the series. I'm not saying at half-time we thought we'd won it, but you'd expect to knock those runs off.

"Seven down after 25 overs, you think you've blown it.

"But to turn it around like that and have the kind of maturity to go out there and play innings like those, you'd thought they'd have played 100 games each," the skipper said.— PTI

Chennai, August 31
India beat China 1-0 in their opening Pool B match on the first day of the seventh Asia Cup men’s hockey tournament here today.

In other matches, Bangladesh pulverised Thailand 13-0 and South Korea beat Sri Lanka 12-2 in Pool A encounters, while Malaysia swamped Singapore 8-0 in a Pool B fixture.

Malaysia and Singapore featured in the tournament opener and the writing was on the wall in the third minute itself when Zulkifli Mohammed Rejab opened his account.

Though Malaysia scored only two more goals till lemon time, it was clear that its tiny neighbour was just that when it came to stick work.

Rejab, captain Chua Boonhuat and Alzon Misron scored a brace each before the final whistle - all this in a situation in which Malaysia did not have much time to acclimatise and did not play a single practice game.

Boonhuat said he had expected a bigger margin.

"We started slowly but gathered momentum in the second half. In fact, our best time was when we were nearing the final whistle. We scored three goals in the final five minutes," Boonhuat said.

"We hope to be in the semi-final and then take it one step at time before the final. In a nutshell, it is a nice present on our national day," he added.

If the first match seemed like a massacre of the innocents - the next one saw Bangladesh drubbing a hapless Thailand.

Forward Rasel Mahmud scored four goals, followed by three from penalty corner specialist Mohammed Mamun. Braces by Mohammed Zahidful Isla and Mohammed Iqbal Nadir and solitary goals by Khondokar Hasan and Mohammed Jahid Bin Talib completed the tally.

As for Sri Lanka, they managed to hold their heads high by scoring two goals despite being overrun the better trained South Koreans.

The ball was in the possession of the Koreans most of the time and the Chennai crowd lustily cheered the islanders on the rare occasions when they had the ball - and quite raucously when they managed to score.

South Korean captain Kim Chul was a worried man after the victory.

Sri Lankan manager Dayal Deegahawatura said he was happy his team was able to give the better-trained Koreans a run for their money. — Agencies

Osaka, August 31
American Allyson Felix defended her 200m world title in style today, streaking down the home straight to win the gold by over half a second in the first sub-22 second run of her career.

Felix dashed across the line in 21.81 seconds - the quickest time at a World Championships final since 1999 - to match Jamaican Marlene Ottey in winning back-to-back world 200m gold.

World 100m and Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell looked to be in with a chance of a sprint double at the bend but Felix stormed past her and the Jamaican took the silver in a season’s best 22.34.

The 0.53 seconds between Felix and Campbell was the biggest margin of victory in the event at a World Championships.

Sri Lanka’s 31-year-old Susanthika Jayasinghe also finished strongly to snatch a fairytale bronze from American Torri Edwards in 22.63 - a decade after winning her last World Championship medal by finishing second in Athens.

China’s Liu Xiang gave a near flawless display of high hurdling to win the 110 metres gold and complete his collection of major titles.

The 24-year-old Olympic champion and world record holder once again relied on his technical prowess to make up for a mediocre start, surging across the line in 12.95 seconds.

American Terrence Trammell ran 12.99 for another silver medal to add to the two he has won at the Olympics, while his compatriot David Payne, who arrived in Osaka as a late replacement on Tuesday, was third in 13.02.

Even if the time was outside his world mark of 12.88, the evening belonged to Liu, who has progressed from bronze in 2003 to silver in 2005 to becoming China’s first male world champion on the track.

American Jeremy Wariner retained his world 400 metres title in dazzling style to lead an American sweep of the medals.

The 23-year-old Texan powered off the final bend to clock 43.45 seconds despite a swirling wind.

LaShawn Merritt took silver in 43.96, with Angelo Taylor completing an all-American podium with a time of 44.32.

Czech Barbora Spotakova survived a late scare to win the women’s javelin gold. Spotakova took full advantage of the absence of Olympic champion and world record holder Osleidys Menendez of Cuba to win with her third throw of 67.07 metres.

Germany’s Christina Obergfoell secured the silver again after finishing runner-up to Menendez in Helsinki two years ago but her final throw of 66.46 gave Spotakova a nervous wait. Fellow German Steffi Nerius took the bronze with 64.42.

Menendez decided not to defend her world title after aggravating an Achilles problem, preferring to focus on next year’s Beijing Olympics.

Cuban Yargelis Savigne caused a major upset when she soared to the triple jump gold and deprived Russian Tatyana Lebedeva of an unprecedented championship double.

The 22-year-old produced the best leap of the year of 15.28 metres on her first attempt at the Nagai Stadium and it proved good enough to take the title. — Reuters

Chandigarh, August 31
It was a bad day for Chandigarh golfers at the $3 lakh Brunei Open Asian Tour event today as all three, Amritinder Singh, Harmeet Kahlon and Gurbaaz Mann, missed the cut of par-142 along with the UBS Order of Merit leader Liang Wen-chang on the Empire Country Club greens at Bandar Seri Bagawan in Brunei.

Only one Indian, 29-year-old SSP Chowrasia of Kolkata, made the cut, sinking four birdies on the second day to finish with a four-under tally of 138. He climbed up the ladder from tied 41st to tied 15th position.

Amritinder Singh missed the cut by two strokes. He shot two birdies and conceded a bogey on the front nine. He was going well up to the 16th hole having sunk another birdie on the 15th. But then he bogeyed the 17th and double-bogeyed the last hole for a two-over score of 144.

That Gurbaaz is passing though a rough patch was evident today when he triple-bogeyed the second hole after teeing off from the 10th. To make matters worse, there was a hat-trick of bogeys on the seventh, eighth and ninth holes. The bogey patch continued on the return nine. Three more lost strokes saw him return an eight-over card of 79. His 13-over tally of 155 saw him finish at tied 133rd.

Kahlon also had a string of bogeys, including two double bogeys. He played a five-over card today for a tally of 147 to finish tied 102nd.

Australian Adam Le Vesconte surged into a three-stroke lead returning a sparkling six-under-par 65 to finish round two with a 12-under-par tally of 130.

Chinese Taipei’s Lin Wen-tang led the chasing pack in second place following a 68, while Nevin Basic of Australia, who carded a 68, was third on 134 followed by compatriot Michael Wright (67) and American Gary Rusnak (68) in tied fourth place.