Cricket: Spinners leave England reeling as India saunter to another win

They were bowled out for 220 in 46.1 overs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, and were unsurprisingly unable to defend their inadequate total as India put themselves one more win away from a series whitewash. A stand of 131 in just 113 balls between Suresh Raina (80) and Virat Kohli (86no) piled on the misery but at least made it quick, as another one-sided contest was concluded almost ten overs early. England, who chose to rest their own world number one bowler Graeme Swann here despite predictions of a spinners’ pitch, lost five wickets for 79 in 20 overs of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. They first hit trouble when both openers fell to successive balls with the score on 39. But Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott appeared to put England in acceptable shape at 112 for two in the 22nd over, only for collective frailties to be exposed. Tim Bresnan top-scored with 45 to help his team marginally over-achieve from 145 for six, but he was last out to debutant pace bowler Varun Aaron, who returned figures of three for 24. Once England’s openers had put an opening maiden each behind them with a flurry of runs, Mahendra Singh Dhoni turned early to Ashwin’s off-spin. The switch did not appear to be working, as Craig Kieswetter took 15 from the first five balls – including a huge six over wide long-on. But Alastair Cook, who had won the toss, pushed forward and missed the sixth to go lbw. England had to start again when Kieswetter was also lbw to the next ball, one from Praveen Kumar which kept low from a good length and hit the pad under the knee roll bang on off stump. Trott was off the mark with a sweetly-timed extra-cover drive for four first ball off Praveen, though, and Pietersen hit his seventh, off the same bowler, for six over long-off. The third-wicket pair progressed well until Trott was bowled off his back pad by one that nipped into him from R Vinay Kumar. Then came the hammer blow when Pietersen slog-swept Ashwin but hit the ball just too near to substitute Manoj Tiwary who held a memorable diving catch. Two more key wickets fell for the addition of only five runs, as Jadeja got his left-arm spin to grip ominously. Ravi Bopara missed a sweep and was lbw; then, in Jadeja’s next over, Jonny Bairstow was bowled by another one that turned sharply. Aaron then produced a high-class, high-speed spell to see off the tail. The batting powerplay had been a near irrelevance, in which England also lost Samit Patel, and Aaron finished the innings by bowling Bresnan with a beauty. Steven Finn provided fleeting hope with two early wickets, finishing with three for 45. He and Bresnan both kept tight lines with the new ball, and Finn bowled Pathiv Patel before Gautam Gambhir played on, via a flat-footed drive on the up. After Stuart Meaker took a maiden wicket with his 11th international delivery, Ajinkya Rahane going to an outstanding catch by wicketkeeper Kieswetter, India had some work to do on 46 for three. But whereas their slow bowlers had exploited conditions expertly, it was a lot to ask young leg-spinner Scott Borthwick to handle the pressure of expectation in only his second ODI and Raina and Kohli settled home nerves and then demoralised England by reaching half-centuries from 50 and 65 balls respectively. England had a half-chance to dismiss each. A direct hit from cover by Patel would have sent Kohli back for 26, and made it a vulnerable 77 for four, and a Raina leg-glance on 33 just dipped under Kieswetter’s glove off Meaker. Finn belatedly ended Raina’s fun, bowled aiming another big hit, but Dhoni then joined Kohli in the middle and the pair eased India over the finish line from just 40.1 overs. If England are to avoid a 5-0 scoreline, they must get heads and bodies right on their travels to Kolkata today before the final match at Eden Gardens tomorrow.