England celebrate ODI series victory

Updated 17.43 Sat Sep 08 2007
Keywords: Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen, Dimitri Mascarenhas, India, Andrew Flintoff, England, cricket, sport

Kevin Pietersen believes "the sky is the limit" for England's one-day side after they beat India at Lord's by seven wickets to wrap up the series 4-3.

Pietersen (71 not out) and one-day skipper Paul Collingwood (64 not out) fired the home side to victory in the all-decisive seventh meeting after Andrew Flintoff and Dimitri Mascarenhas took three wickets apiece as India were dismissed for just 187.

"To score as many runs as we have done in this series and bowl India out on a pretty good pitch today...the sky is the limit. Every single player wants to get better" - Kevin Pietersen

RP Singh claimed the scalps of Matt Prior (0) and the newly-promoted Luke Wright (0) to give the tourists hope before Pietersen and Collingwood made sure of the result after Ian Bell (36) was run out.

Pietersen said: "It means a heck of a lot to me. This is the first one-day series I've won with England.

"I was really disappointed and down in the dumps after (losing) the last game but I'm a very happy man. I look forward now to South Africa. It's a great country and with the team we've got it could be a great tournament for us.

"To score as many runs as we have done in this series and bowl India out on a pretty good pitch today...the sky is the limit. Every single player wants to get better. Hats off to Colly and to the coach, they've got a great work ethic."

James Anderson claimed the scalps of Sourav Ganguly (15) and Gautam Gambhi (12) to give the home side the perfect start before Flintoff struck.

The Lancashire all-rounder, returning after missing the last two games due to ongoing problems with his left ankle, removed captain Rahul Dravid (0) and Sachin Tendulkar (30) in successive overs to leave India struggling on 59-4.

And it was not long before Mascarenhas made his presence felt as he claimed the wickets of Robin Uthappa (22) and Yuvraj Singh (28) before Ramesh Powar was run out for ten.

Piyush Chawla (0) also fell to Mascarenhas and after Monty Panesar sent Zaheer Khan (7) back to the pavilion India's innings came to an end when Flintoff ended Mahendra Dhoni's defiant 50-run innings.

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