India coast to easy win in third one-dayer

NOTTINGHAM: India’s spinners again proved England’s undoing as the tourists won the third One-day International at Trent Bridge on Saturday by six wickets to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series (partly reported in Sunday’s edition).

World champions India, chasing a modest 228 for victory, cruised to 228-4 with seven overs to spare.

Ambati Rayudu, only playing because of Rohit Sharma’s tour-ending finger injury, struck an ODI-best 64 not out.

Together with Suresh Raina, who followed up his 100 in India’s equally dominant 133-run victory in Cardiff on Wednesday with a run-a-ball 42, Rayudu put on 87 for the fourth wicket.

But it was the first innings that decided the course of the match, with England dismissed for a meagre 227 after losing the toss.

They were 82-0 thanks to under-fire captain Alastair Cook (44) and Alex Hales (42).

But England, as happened in Cardiff, again succumbed to spin as off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took 3-39, with only Jos Buttler (42), apart from Cook and Hales, passing 40 in the innings.

Ajinkya Rahane, promoted to open in place of Sharma, showed his class with a textbook cover-driven four off James Anderson.

Virat Kohli, who averaged just 13.4 in India’s preceding 3-1 Test series defeat and was out for a duck on Wednesday, drove off-spinner James Tredwell for six in the 13th over.

Rahane then lofted Stokes high over long-off for six to the delight of the India fans in a 17,000 sell-out crowd.

But he was out for 45 when fast bowler Steven Finn, playing his first international match in nearly a year, had Rahane caught behind as he tried to run the ball down to third man.

And Kohli’s promising 50-ball innings of 40, his best international score of the tour, ended when he somehow flicked Stokes straight to Tredwell at mid-on.

Stokes then gave Kohli a verbal ‘send-off’, which prompted a warning from umpires Paul Reiffel and Michael Gough.

India were 120-3 but the rarely troubled Rayudu went on to complete an impressive fifty when he deliberately uppercut Finn for his fifth four in 63 balls.

The series continues at Edgbaston on Tuesday.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND:

A .N. Cook st Dhoni b Rayudu 44 A.D, Hales c Dhoni b Raina 42 I.R. Bell run out 28 J.E. Root st Dhoni b Jadeja 2 E.J.G. Morgan c Dhoni b Ashwin 10 J.C. Buttler b Ashwin 42 B.A. Stokes c Raina b Ashwin 2 C.R. Woakes c Sharma b Shami 15 J.C. Tredwell c and b Kumar 30 S.T. Finn run out 6 J.M. Anderson not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-2, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (all out, 50 overs) 227

FALL OF WKTS: 1-82, 2-93, 3-97, 4-120, 5-138, 6-149, 7-182, 8-202, 9-226.

BOWLING: Kumar 8-0-45-1 (1nb); Sharma 3-0-17-0; Shami 9-0-40-1 (1w); Ashwin 10-0-39-3; Raina 8-0-37-1; Rayudu 2-0- 8-1 (1w); Jadeja 10-0-38-1.

INDIA:

A.M. Rahane c Buttler b Finn 45 S. Dhawan c Morgan b Woakes 16 V. Kohli c Tredwell b Stokes 40 A.T. Rayudu not out 64 S.K. Raina c Woakes b Tredwell 42 R.A. Jadeja not out 12

EXTRAS (LB2, W7) 9

TOTAL (for four wkts, 43 overs) 228

FALL OF WKTS: 1-35, 2-85, 3-120, 4-207.

DID NOT BAT: M.S. Dhoni, R. Ashwin, B. Kumar, Mohammed Shami, M.M. Sharma.

BOWLING: Anderson 7-0-29-0 (2w); Woakes 8-1-43-1; Tredwell 10-1-46-1; Finn 8-0-50-1 (2w); Stokes 6-0-31-1 (2w); Root 4-0-27-0 (1w).

RESULT: India won by six wickets.

UMPIRES: M.A. Gough (England) and P.R. Reiffel (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: R.J. Bailey (England).

MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Ravichandran Ashwin.

FIRST MATCH: Bristol, no result.

SECOND MATCH: Cardiff, India won by 133 runs (D/L method).