Record stand by Bopara and Broad cheers England

MANCHESTER, England, Aug 31 (Reuters) An England record eighth-wicket stand by youngsters Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad clinched an unlikely victory over India in the fourth one-day international at Old Trafford.

Bopara, 22, and Broad, 21, shared an unbroken alliance of 99 as England recovered from the depths of 114 for seven to reach their target of 213 with 12 balls to spare.

The calm Bopara hit 43 not out while man of the match Broad was unbeaten on 45 as the home side took a 3-1 lead in the seven-match series.

''For those two to come in and win the match for us is unbelievable...brilliant,'' said captain Paul Collingwood yesterday.

''They had a chance to come in and shine and grabbed it with both hands.

''It was an amazing game, swinging one way and then the other. We were disappointed to be seven down with so few runs on the board...but that we can come back from that and still win is a fantastic achievement.'' Earlier, Broad picked up four for 51 with the ball in an all-round performance that delighted his father, former England batsman Chris Broad who was among the spectators.

Broad and James Anderson (three for 38) made the most of cool and overcast conditions to put England on top after India skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat.

Sachin Tendulkar (55 from 86 balls) and Yuvraj Singh (71 from 104) hit half-centuries but the rest of the specialist batsmen did not cope well against a moving ball as India were bowled out for 212 in 49.4 overs.

Andrew Flintoff, who missed the previous match with a knee injury, was back for England.

Yuvraj and Tendulkar put on 71 for the fourth wicket before the latter was caught at deep square-leg by Flintoff off part-time spinner Kevin Pietersen.

TURNING DELIVERY A brilliant turning delivery by Monty Panesar bowled Mahendra Singh Dhoni for 13 before Broad and Anderson wrapped up the tail.

England then slipped to 35 for three in reply.

Alastair Cook (0) was bowled by Zaheer Khan with the fifth ball, Matt Prior (4) fell to a catch at third man off Ajit Agarkar and the in-form Ian Bell (24) was bowled by Agarkar.

Pietersen (18) mistimed a pull off Agarkar and was caught by Piyush Chawla, leaving England 81 for four.

Flintoff (5) became medium-pacer Agarkar's fourth victim, caught at backward point by Yuvraj.

Owais Shah then fell for eight before Collingwood (47) was run out after a mix-up with Bopara.

Dravid praised the match-winning stand by Bopara and Broad.

''It's very disappointing (for us) but you have to give credit to the two boys, they played beautifully,'' said Dravid.

''We tried to keep getting wickets, we tried to change it round, but they didn't give us a chance. Probably we were 25 runs light to start with.'' Reuters RKM VP0445