Legends of Sports

Ajinkya Rahane's top order heroics and MS Dhoni's perfect finishing, India took a series winning 3-0 lead at Mohali as England lost by five wickets. Ajinkya Rahane (91) outdid the sheet-anchor rhythm of Jonathan Trott (98no) - and despite an England fightback, Mahendra Singh Dhoni jumbled his team home with four balls to spare in pursuit of 298 for four. The best efforts of Samit Patel (70no) and Kevin Pietersen (64) - in century stands with Trott - therefore proved in vain.

England failed to contain the scoring options of Rahane and Gautam Gambhir (58), and Alastair Cook's team must therefore ponder how they can regroup and avoid a 5-0 whitewash in the two remaining matches. They knew all along they faced a important challenge to combine the home gains of their 3-0 NatWest Series success against India just last month. But England was however hopeful about a task which proved just beyond them here, and much more so previously in Hyderabad and Delhi.

Gambhir gave a half-chance on 17, a thin edge on an attempted drive at Patel slipping through Kieswetter's left glove. But that was as near as England got until, with the game already actually lurching irreversibly India's way, Pietersen leapt to hold a very good catch at cover as Gambhir mistimed an attempted big hit at the deserving Finn. But Dhoni and Jadeja hauled India over the line in an unbroken stand of 65, Kieswetter capping an untidy display by missing an obvious chance to run out the left-hander in the 49th over.

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