†ENGLAND v INDIA 1986

At Manchester, May 26. England won by five wickets. A marvellous match of fluctuating fortunes and mounting excitement was blessed by welcome sunshine and graced by good cricket throughout. Put in, India lost Gavaskar in Ellison's first over, but Srikkanth (93 balls) was in typically enterprising form. Emburey's two wickets before lunch, and Dilley's dismissal of Patil with the first ball of the afternoon session, swung the pendulum England's way (130 for five), only for Shastri (72 balls) and Kapil Dev (45 balls), helped by a missed stumping and some loose bowling, to steal the initiative with exhilarating and inventive batting, 90 coming off the last ten overs. Their running between the wickets (matched later by that Gower and Lamb) turned ones into twos, twos into threes as the slow outfield restricted boundaries. Gower, with his lovely strokeplay, underpinned England's reply. There was a setback when Lamb (71 balls) was run out when Gower's straight drive was deflected by the boot of Chetan Sharma, the bowler; and Gower was bowled, pulling across the line, in the 39th over as he tried to improve the run-rate. Pringle, however, again looked untroubled, Gatting was urgency, and with good running they hauled in a requirement of almost 7 runs an over. Pringle eased the pressure with a straight-driven 4 off Binny, and after two wides by Chetan Sharma in the penultimate over, he drove him through the covers for the winning boundary.

India, by virtue of their faster run-rate in the two matches, won the Texaco Trophy. England, to have taken it, would have had to score their 255 runs in 47.1 overs.

Man of the Match: D. I. Gower. Attendance: 16,202; receipts: £126,200.

Men of the Series: D. I. Gower (England) and R. J. Shastri (India).