London, Sept 08:Form deserted the Indian batsmen when they needed it most and England, riding on twin unbeaten half centuries by Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood, trounced the lacklustre visitors by seven wickets to pocket the seven-match cricket series 4-3 at Lord`s here on Saturday.
Chasing 188 runs for win, England cruised to the target with 82 balls to spare and bulk of the runs came from captain Paul Collingwood (64 not out) and Man-of-the-match Kevin Pietersen (71).
Earlier, England bowlers took the upper hand when they skittled out India, albeit with the help of couple of poor decisions from umpire Aleem Dar, for a meagre 187 in 47.3 overs.
Skipper Dravid opted to bat but India lost wickets at regular intervals. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (50) topscored for India, while in-form Sachin Tendulkar returned to a dubious decision after a 46-ball 30.
For the hosts, Dimitry Mascarenhas (3/23) and Andrew Filntoff (3/45), coming back from a injury, did most of the damage.
After winning the historic three-match Test series 1-0, Rahul Dravid`s men found themselves trailing 1-3 on the one dayers, after punctuating the defeats at Southampton, Birmingham and Manchester with the win at Bristol.
Within a week, India bounced back with wins at Leeds and The Oval to level the series, which set-up the Lord`s encounter as a grand finale. But in the end, it were the hosts, playing under a new skipper Collingwood, who had the last laugh.
England had an easy target but RP Singh`s two-wicket burst in the second over jolted them, and they lost one more wicket before Pietersen and Collingwood took them to victory with sedate knocks.
Defending a paltry total of 187, Indian bowlers knew they stood hardly any chance in the match but RP Singh still injected some life in it with those strikes that left the hosts to 11 for two. The only other time India celebrated was when Ian Bell returned run out for 36.
RP Singh drew the first blood when Luke Wright went for a pull only to allow the bowler a world of time to place himself under the ballooning ball. And two balls later, it was Matt Prior, who edged behind the stumps before he could open his account.
Bell and Pietersen then arrested the slide before an almighty mix-up saw bowler Sourav Ganguly collecting a low throw from Tendulkar and whip off the bails with Bell`s outstretched bat hanging in the air.
Pietersen, who had not played a major role in the series so far rose to the occasion and together with Collingwood played with utmost confidence and did not relax till the job was done.
In the end, Pietersen was not out on 71 that came off 96 balls and included six boundaries and a huge six off Piyush Chawla; his nemesis in the series.
Collingwood took 73 balls for his 64 runs, that had seven boundaries and a six.
Earlier, Rahul Dravid`s decision to bat first clearly boomeranged as India`s top order witnessed a spectacular batting collapse, thanks to dubious decisions against Tendulkar and Dravid, coupled with some poor batting.
A packed audience was disappointed as India lost their way from 52 for one, losing their last nine wickets for just 135 runs and made the cardinal sin of not lasting their full quota of fifty overs, being dismissed in 47.3 overs.
Tendulkar (30) got a rank bad decision from Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar, as did Dravid. And Dhoni apart, none of the Indian batsmen displayed the desire to stay at the wicket.
Yuvraj Singh (28) and last match`s hero Robin Uthappa (22) got out to soft dismissals after looking good.
Tendulkar became a victim of poor umpiring decision in his swansong ODI on British soil. His pleasing knock was cut short on 30 (46b,4x4) by Dar who ruled him caught behind off Flintoff as he looked to play an expansive drive and was beaten. He was stunned to see the finger go up and walked back with disappointment writ large on his face.
Ganguly played a few audacious shots in the air before edging Ander son to Flintoff at second slip for 15 (22b,2x4) while Dravid fell for a three-ball duck.
The Indian captain shook his head in disbelief as umpire Dar ruled him out caught behind off a rising delivery from Flintoff, even though television replays showed that he missed the ball.
Dhoni battled adversity by taking the attack to the bowlers, hitting four fours and one towering six off James Anderson before falling to Andrew Flintoff for a 72-ball knock of 50.
He stuck it out gamely at one end but was hopelessly lacking in support from the other end as Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla and Zaheer Khan collectively lasted just 28 balls.
Bureau Report
