England Floored By Sehwag and Ganguly at Full Throttle

England arrived in Sri Lanka hoping to formulate strategies for next year's World Cup. They leave with those plans exposed as inadequate after an innings of savagery by Virender Sehwag comprehensively ended their Champions Trophy challenge.

Nasser Hussain admitted to being traumatised by India's successful chase of 325 at Lord's in this summer's NatWest Series final. Last night he was lost in admiration as Sehwag, one of the most brutal strokeplayers that India have ever produced, ensured that India annihilated a stiff target of 270 with eight wickets and 10.3 overs in hand.

"They batted brilliantly," he said. "When sides like India come at us, on these kinds of wickets, we have to show more character, more variety and think on our feet. We tried, but Sehwag in the first 15 overs was extraordinary."

Statistics suggested that England's 269 for seven, against all other sides bar India, represented a potentially match-winning recovery. No side had ever successfully chased more than 243 for six in 55 previous one-dayers at Khettarama, and the Champions Trophy was still awaiting its first successful chase under floodlights.

But Sehwag has scant regard for logic. There is a barbaric quality to his strokeplay that is unmatched by any batsman in the world, an intent upon wanton destruction that becomes more frenzied with every boundary.

Somerset's burly all-rounder, Ian Blackwell, in only his second ODI, had advanced his World Cup claims with an innings of 82 from 68 balls, full of plucky legside biffs. This was Colombo's most humid day of the tournament and it left him dehydrated, mildly disorientated and in need of an ice bath during the interval. He returned to the field with India 80 for nought off 11, a man with a purple face walking back into a Sehwag-inspired purple haze.

Andrew Caddick, the most senior and parsimonious member of England's attack, had predicted before the game that if England's batsmen could amass a decent total, then the bowlers could tie India down. England posted the total; Caddick's seven overs cost 59, and for Matthew Hoggard, there was no semblance of swing.

India's openers - paired from Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar - have now made century stands in three of their last five ODI's against England. The 192 in 28.4 overs between Sehwag and Ganguly was the most destructive.

Initially the Prince of Bengal, protected from the heat by a beige cravat, played the waiting game, carving out singles and more than once laughing out loud when Sehwag played a defensive shot. England must look at Sehwag's two one-day hundreds and remind themselves that wildness is often his downfall.

It was only when Sehwag departed for 126 from 104 balls, with 21 fours and a six by the time he chipped back Blackwell's low full toss, that Ganguly allowed himself to sweat a little. He hooked with outrageous fortune, as he had all summer, finished the innings with the same rampant strokeplay with which Sehwag had launched it, and sent Indian supporters in a 35,000 crowd into ecstacy by swinging Blackwell for a straight six to reach his own hundred.

Ganguly could not resist a smirk at the knowledge that India, after nearly a year of keenly fought occasionally spiteful, contests between the two sides, could rightly claim their superiority. "After Sehwag's start, the match was settled. It was easy for me," he said.

England had their chances in the field. Nick Knight almost clung to a fierce, diving chance at second slip when Sehwag was only three, and Dominic Cork's leg-spinner would have ended Sehwag's innings on 47 had he not been saved by a thin bottom edge into his pads. Ganguly might also have been run out before his innings had ripened, but Hussain's diving shy missed from three yards.

England made a terrible start, overpowered by two energetic spells from India's left-arm pair, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan. Immediately, it became clear that India's decision to give leave for half their squad to return to their families for a few days had been revitalising.

NehrGerhard Schröder's Social Democrats have held onto power in Germany's closest postwar election.

The chancellor now faces a tougher opposition at home and the task of rebuilding ties with the United States after a campaign that angered Washington.

Mr Schröder secured another four years for his coalition with the small Greens party in Sunday's vote, handing Europe's dwindling left another boost a week after Social Democrats triumphed in Sweden.

But he will have to tackle problems such as chronic unemployment and slow economic growth and confront strains in the country's welfare state with a slender majority that opponents say will not hold.

Official results released early today showed the Social Democrats and Gr