Sachin Tendulkar in action during the match against England in Bangalore on Sunday. (Reuters)

Bangalore, Feb. 27: Such things don’t happen in life; they can only happen in cricket. Such serial coming back from the dead.

Both combatants took turns leaping into the coffin tonight. In the end both wheezed out, scarred but still alive, teetering on the wire, desperate not to be thrown off. India 338, England 338, One Day Cricket 676 not out.

Tonight was not merely about two teams surviving their stunning foibles; it was equally, if not more, about the 50-over game declaring that speculation over its death is vastly exaggerated. On paper, nobody won this contest but it’s probably fair to cede the victor’s column on the score-sheet to ODIs.

Two scintillating tons, one a side. Two match-swinging bursts of bowling, again one a side. Two teams that took turns defying the odds of victory and defeat and earned a tie that left everybody watching twisted from anxiety.

At the end of the Indian innings — a ball shy of 50 overs — England looked like they had been batted out before they had donned their pads: 338 to chase under lights on what was touted as a turner.

At 281 for two, England surely looked like they had buried India under the audacious centurion Cross of St Strauss, Ian Bell assisting the last rites by the graveside. Both were wielding the willow like swords, Indians lay bleeding all around the park. Then, Andrew Strauss suddenly decided to lose the magic that had spewed on him all evening from the skies.

Against requirement and the run of play, he took the batting powerplay. It worked wonders for the bowling side. It produced 25 runs for England and four wickets for India.

Bell, caught lofting to cover off Zaheer. Strauss, caught plumb in front of the sticks the next ball Zaheer fired in. Four runs later, Collingwood bowled by Zaheer. Eight runs later, Michael Yardy pocketed by Virender Sehwag at fine leg off Munaf Patel.

From 281 for two to 307 for seven. Required rate up beyond 10 an over. Those that had begun to leave the Chinnaswamy arena turned on their heels. Those that had remained unfurled their rolled-up Tricolours and began to tempt gravity from the high tiers. They rediscovered their vocal chords and their country. “Indiaaaa! Indiyaaah!”

But India weren’t done with their fancy for the coffin box yet. Piyush Chawla went for two sixes to Graeme Swann in the penultimate over and World Cup debutant Ajmal Shahzad hit Munaf for another in the last.

England were suddenly breathing, India were choking. It came down to a gettable two off the last ball.

Munaf held his nerve, and Cricket took hold of the game. A tie that would have left both teams a little ravaged and both a little relieved. Both captains ended up admitting as much in post-match comments; both could have won it, both managed not to lose it. India, it must be said, far more than England, for this was the second time in as many games at the 2011 Cup that their batsmen have put up a big belly of a score and their bowlers have nearly lost the stomach for battle.

They said it would rain but there were no clouds tonight in Bangalore — the venue that replaced the Eden Gardens. And no silver lining either. It was meant to have lain there somewhere, concealed beneath the 22 yard centrestage of Chinnaswamy. It was meant to have gripped the ball and put a turn on it late evening, the devil in the red-soil pitch. It never turned up; it was probably well bribed by the Barmy Army in the bars of Bangalore.

But the Indians were no less truant on task on the green. They were pleased with less than they could have put up. They bowled, for the most part, as if drunk on the excess of runs their batsmen had amassed. They caught and fielded like lords with a lot to spare. They spared themselves a victory they probably deserved at the half-way stage but began to celebrate too early.

India had close to an embarrassment of runs in the kitty but they seem to have turned amnesiac on one of cricket’s central facts: it is a game of two halves. You don’t win games if you bat well and bowl poorly. Sourav Ganguly said bluntly: “India have got out of jail tonight, they just made things tough for themselves with the way they bowled three quarters of the game.”

For a great while into the England innings, the Indians bowled as if they’d been called to give the guests net practice. Runs flowed, and very soon, they were sinking in the tide. Chinnaswamy, which had roared all afternoon to the batting pyrotechnics of the Men in Blue, retreated in schizophrenic silence. Until a Munaf netted a stunning catch midpitch off his own bowling to dismiss the destructive Pietersen.

Sachin strung his innings out like a symphony, a Tchaikovsky nutcracker that scratched and stuttered and meandered noiselessly to begin with, betraying no hint of the ballistics written in. Then, with almost no notice, explosion off his bat to the accompaniment of thunder rippling in the packed stands.

He took India to a hundred, lifting Collingwood over long off for his first six. He arrived at his personal 50 smacking the same bowler over long on. His third hit for maximum off Graeme Swann brought up 150 for India and Tendulkar celebrated by lifting Swann’s next ball into the midwicket stands yet again. By now Tendulkar was leapfrogging over his early-over deficits, already close to a run-a-ball.

By the time he perished on 120, looping one to cover trying to hurry the run-rate, he’d gone past the percentage, and past all World Cup centurions. Tendulkar has five now and the only one still playing among the five he left behind today is the Australian skipper Ricky Ponting. There’s much more leaving behind Tendulkar’s team will have to do if they are to get ahead of the competition in the Cup.