Third one-day international, Edgbaston: England 281-8 (50 overs) bt India 239 (48.1 overs) by 42 runs
 Anderson took three wickets as England claimed an impressive win |
England produced a superb performance to beat India by 42 runs and go 2-1 up in their seven-game one-day series. Ian Bell (79) hit his third fifty in as many games and Paul Collingwood made 44 as the hosts posted 281-7 at Edgbaston.
Sourav Ganguly (72) and Rahul Dravid (56) added 104 to help India fight back but Chris Tremlett removed both and James Anderson took three wickets.
Bell took two fine catches off skipper Collingwood's bowling as India were bowled out for 239 in the 49th over.
It was another polished display, similar to the opening win at the Rose Bowl, and came after talismanic all-rounder Andrew Flintoff (sore knee) and Dimitri Mascarenhas (hand injury) were ruled out.
Put in to bat by India, openers Matt Prior (36) and Alastair Cook (40) made solid if unspectacular progress early on, with no great swing movement on offer for left-arm pacemen Zaheer Khan and RP Singh.
 | 606: DEBATE |
Although Cook was dropped on 15 when he pulled Zaheer to RP Singh at backward square-leg, runs were starting to flow when Prior - out seven times in the 30s in his 17 previous ODI appearances - flayed Munaf Patel high in the air to point, where Piyush Chawla pouched the ball.
Dravid then brought on his spinners and they bowled quite beautifully at times.
Cook was deceived by Ramesh Powar's dip and swept to Yuvraj Singh at short fine-leg, while Chawla had a confident lbw shout against Pietersen rejected before having him comprehensively stumped with a googly.
Collingwood could have fallen almost immediately in similar circumstances after a leg-break had him groping uncertainly and he was very lucky when Yuvraj had a strong lbw appeal turned down.
But he managed to land some blows of his own - a majestic strike over mid-wicket for six off Chawla the highlight - as he added 50 in 66 balls with Bell.
 Bell's innings was more about placement than big shots |
Bell nudged the ball around well in between some mighty swings of the bat which saw him crash Chawla over long-on and long-off.
Just when the momentum was building, Collingwood reverse-swept Yuvraj straight to backward point, while Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara's cameos were too brief and Bell lofted to cover to end hopes of a second century in the series.
Tremlett thrashed RP Singh out of the ground as 22 runs came in the last two overs.
Ganguly hammered four boundaries in one Anderson over early in the reply but England's new-ball pair were generally excellent.
Sachin Tendulkar waited 17 deliveries before he picked up his first boundary, a pull off Anderson in the 10th over, but two balls later he was snapped up by Collingwood at backward point.
Dinesh Karthik steered his second ball to extra-cover to give Stuart Broad a wicket but Dravid responded stylishly to the mini-crisis, cracking three boundaries in an over from Broad as he got to 50 off 51 balls.
Ganguly followed immediately to get there off 82 and when he lofted Monty Panesar over the long-on rope and carted Tremlett through the covers to bring up the 100 partnership off 112 balls it looked grim for England.
But the tall Hampshire seamer bowled Dravid off an inside edge and saw a diving Prior brilliantly snaffle Ganguly.
Yuvraj and Dhoni were India's last hopes and the former responded by belting Collingwood through the covers, Bopara through backward point and Tremlett over mid-wicket with real ferocity.
When he pummelled Panesar 10 rows back over the mid-wicket fence, India were in with an even chance but Dhoni cut Anderson to point and Bell accounted for Powar and Chawla with sharp catches at mid-wicket and extra-cover.
Bell and Panesar combined to run out Yuvraj for 45 off 39 balls when Zaheer sent him back and Panesar then bowled the tail-ender comprehensively before Anderson cleaned up Patel to put the seal on a highly impressive victory.
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