Onions can't prevent two-wicket defeat

Maharashtra 183 for 8 (Onions 7-39) beat England Lions 182 for 9 (Carberry 67, Rashid 40, Agharkar 3-34) by two wickets
Scorecard

Graham Onions almost pulled off an incredible one-man bowling display for England Lions in their one-day match against a Maharashtra Cricket Association XI, but his seven-wicket haul wasn't enough to prevent a two-wicket defeat in a low-scoring contest at the Brabourne Stadium.

The Lions were forced to bat with 10 players after Michael Yardy, the captain, came down with a migraine moments before the start. As the toss had already taken place it was too late to change the team, so it was a line-up light on frontline batting with Andrew Flintoff having earlier been ruled out with a stomach upset.

Michael Carberry continued his impressive tour with 67 off 84 balls, but Adil Rashid (40) was the only other batsman to pass 15 as the Lions fell away from 133 for 3 to 182 for 9.

However, Maharashtra didn't find the going easy as Onions ripped through the top order with four wickets in his opening burst. Jonathan Trott chipped in by removing Kedar Jadhav and at 89 for 5 the game was in the balance. Deepak Shilamkar and Shrikant Mundhe combined to add 59 for the sixth wicket - the highest stand of the match - but with 35 needed Onions almost produced a final twist.

He returned to complete his 10 overs and added three more scalps to his tally and suddenly Maharasthra needed 23 with two wickets left. But the rest of the Lions' attack couldn't support Onions - 19 wides were also gifted - and Digambar Waghmare's 13-ball 19 completed the chase with more than five overs in hand.