Ealham's burst overcomes India
Kent 284 India 263 Kent win by 21 runs
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Your support makes all the difference.On the day that England lost a one-day warm-up game to those limited-overs "giants" Wales, one of their discards, Mark Ealham, struck a useful psychological blow by putting the skids under India as they attempted to find form ahead of the triangular series.
A fine all-round performance by Ealham, which culminated in a devastating spell of four wickets in 11 balls, to add to a magnificent unbeaten half century, wrapped things up for Kent, although the tourists had already had the stuffing knocked out of them thanks to an equally wicked spell of bowling from James Golding.
Golding finished with 4 for 42, but more important than those figures were the players who fell victim to his seam bowling. They read like a mini Who's Who. The first to go was the promising youngster Virender Sehwag for a menacing 45 at a run a ball. Then, in his second spell came the big one, Sachin Tendulkar, who toe-ended a shortish ball onto his middle stump.
That sparked a spell of 3 for 5 in 15 balls, with Dinesh Mongia and Yuvraj Singh following Tendulkar back into the pavilion. Sourav Ganguly had already been run out and when the former Kent player, Rahul Dravid, became the second of Ealham's victims, the target was yanked out of India's reach.
Earlier, the home side took advantage of a tremendous start, racing to three figures on the back of Robert Key, who passed 50 for the sixth time in successive one-day innings, and then converted it into his maiden limited-overs hundred.
Key and Andrew Symonds put on 128 for the second wicket, the former hitting 76 off 84 balls while Symonds needed just 57 balls for his brutal 75. Ealham's 74-ball innings contained five sixes – one of which cleared the famous lime tree and eventually smashed the windscreen of a spectator's car. For good measure Ealham also hit five other boundaries. In the midst of the carnage Zaheer Khan produced a crumb or two of comfort for India with a return of 4 for 38. But the tourists will have much to ponder between now and their opening match against England at Lord's on Saturday.
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