Bangalore:  Rain dampened the spirits after India was given a great start by Virender Sehwag (45 batting) and Gautam Gambhir (23 batting) as play was stopped following a heavy drizzle at the end of the 14th over of the Indian innings in the fourth ODI aginst England here today.

Sachin Tendulkar had departed after making an uneventful 11 runs even as Sehwag and his 'favourite' partner Gambhir began scoring at a rattling pace to take India to 82 for one at the end of the 14th over bowled by left arm spinner Samit Patel.

But rain put a halt to their belligerent batting at this juncture and forced players to run for cover towards the pavilion.

Weather man had predicted that rain, at times heavy, was likely to occur in the city under the influence of a low pressure area developed in the Bay off the coast of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

This had put a question mark on the conduct of the crucial one-day encounter which the English team is desperate to win.

India leads the seven-match series 3-0.

Thick grey clouds gathered momentum, moved menacingly from Northeast direction converged over the M Chinnaswamy stadium in the heart of the Garden City and it soon started to drizzle.

This became persistent and heavy as minutes passed by.

The city witnessed cloudy weather since yesterday which denied sun to peep out through the morning and the afternoon.

England had been under distress after the third match was cut short due to bad light and India won it on Duckworth-Lewis method.

English captain Kevin Pietersen strongly believed that his team could have won the match and showed his ire against the umpires for not restarting the game.

UNI

Tags: india england 2008, england tour of india, bangalore, 3rd odi, tendulkar, sehwag.