England quicks send India out of World Twenty20 championship, win by three runs

India’s World Twenty20 title defence came to an undignified end at Lord’s on Sunday night, with their batsmen crumbling to an aggressive English bowling performance. Chasing 154 to stay alive in the tournament, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team fell three runs short, their second straight defeat leaving them with nothing but pride to play for against South Africa on Tuesday.

I Over two weeks in England, including the warm-ups, India have beaten a ragged Pakistan, the inexperienced Ireland and a ridiculously poor Bangladesh. Against New Zealand, West Indies and England last night, they fell comfortably short. England’s victory margin did not reflect how far behind India were.

There will be time for post-mortems, but first impressions are that they should have seen it coming. The West Indian quicks had them hopping around on Friday night, and they got more of the same on Sunday.

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Right arm... over

Like his bowling, and his personality, the end of his extraordinary career was understated.

In the serenity that comes on the fifth day of a drawn Test, the batsmen practising their shots, the bowlers perfecting the line for the next match — after India had done enough to ensure there were no mishaps, and not well enough to pull off a miraculous win — Anil Kumble revealed to the world what he had decided the previous night.

As the Sunday afternoon crowd was getting in a festive mood, relishing VVS Laxman’s elegant flicks and Sourav Ganguly’s last few silken drives at the Kotla, a sign went up on .the two giant screens in the stadium. It read: “Anil Kumble has decided to retire after this Test match”.

The applause, at first muffled, became a deafening roar as Kumble waved from the dressing-room balcony, and reached a euphonious crescent do as the Indian captain walked on to the field through a corridor lined by his teammates,raising his faded Test cap.

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