NOTTINGHAM, England // India’s spinners again proved England’s undoing as the tourists won the third one-day international at Trent Bridge by six wickets on Saturday to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
World champions India, chasing a modest 228 for victory, cruised to 228 for four with seven overs to spare.
Ambati Rayudu, only playing because of Rohit Sharma’s tour-ending finger injury, had an ODI-best 64 not out.
Together with Suresh Raina, who followed 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 without loss thanks to under-fire captain Alastair Cook (44) and Alex Hales (42).
But England, as also happened in Cardiff, succumbed to spin as they lost three wickets for 15 runs in six overs to be 97 for three.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, the man of the match, took three for 39, with only Jos Buttler (42), apart from Cook and Hales, passing 40 in the innings.
England managed just one four in 26 overs midway through their innings and did not hit a six until the last over.
“The spinners did it for us – Ashwin and [Ravindra] Jadeja bowled really well, but also Raina’s spell was important,” India captain MS Dhoni said.
“Rayudu bowled and batted well, he’s a good player of spin and we’re still looking for a No 4 batsman to bat through the innings.”
For Cook, it was an all-too familiar scenario.
“We didn’t play very well,” he said. “We got off to another good start but, from 80-0, you expect to get more than 230.”
As for England’s ongoing problems against spin, Cook said: “It’s something we’re not doing very well at the moment, but we’ve got to keep working at it.
“I think the ball spinned off the pitch more in the morning than it did in the afternoon, but I still don’t think it was a 230 pitch.
“We need to keep working, because if we don’t, we will keep not getting enough.”
India were then able to knock the runs off with six wickets to spare, with England not having the same weapons in their own spin department.
“We are trying to find the quality spinners,” Cook said. “India are blessed with a lot of quality.
“I didn’t think Trent Bridge would spin as much as it did, but you have to adjust to that. The bottom line is, we didn’t play very well with the bat.”
England's opening stand ended when Hales, on his Nottinghamshire home ground, top-edged a sweep off Raina's sixth ball and was caught by wicketkeeper Dhoni.
Hales had also fallen to the sweep after making 40 on his ODI debut in Cardiff, and his exit was the cue for England to again get bogged down against spin.
Rayudu took his first international wicket when he had Cook stumped down the legside by Dhoni.
Cook, whom former England teammate Graeme Swann suggested this week should quit one-day cricket because he scores too slowly, took 65 balls to get his runs.
The wickets then tumbled, with England going from 82 for no loss to 149 for six in fewer than 18 overs. Not surprisingly, the lower order could not repair the damage, and India had few problems in the chase.
The series continues at Birmingham’s Edgbaston ground on Tuesday.
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