Monty's Magic

India were the favourites at the start of this NatWest Series but from the moment Rahul Dravid won the toss and inserted England at the Rose Bowl in the first of seven one-day internationals, everything went right for Paul Collingwood's side.

Maiden one-day hundreds from Alastair Cook and Ian Bell inspired bowling from Jimmy Anderson and an aggressive comeback from Andrew Flintoff could not overshadow Monty's moment of magic as India replied to England's 288 for two.

It came as Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar set about trying to overtake England.  Once Panesar struck it never looked happened.  The danger appeared minimal when Tendulkar stroked Stuart Broad to Panesar at wide mid-off in the third over and set off for a comfortable single.

Seeing that the fielder was in fact Monty, Ganguly turned for two but was sent back with Panesar's throw neatly taken by Matt Prior and the third umpire did the rest.

The 21st run and out of Ganguly's one-day international career was symptomatic of an energetic, much-improved performance from England and a sub-standard one from India.

Dravid complimented England after the match saying, 'We were just outplayed today.  They played a perfect one-day game.'

England skipper Paul Collingwood agreed adding, 'It wasn't far off the mark.  It's one of our best performances for some time but what we have to do now is repeat it in the next six games.'