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Virat Kohli (86 not out) and Suresh Raina (80) powered India to a comfortable victory despite some early jolts in the fourth match of the ODI series here on Sunday. With India down at 46 for three, England's hopes for a comfort win here were dashed by the 131-run stand for the fourth wicket. India making 223 for four in 40.1 overs. England's defence of its modest score of 220 started off well enough as Steven Finn surprised Parthiv Patel and in-form Gautam Gambhir in a five-over spell the opener paying for missing the line and the latter playing on.

Raina then joined Kohli out in the middle, and the duo went about getting the chase back on track. Kohli pierced a packed off-side field with fluent drives and Raina opened out after initial nicks and nudges, picking his spot for fierce aerial shots on the front foot. He slogged or scooped anything within range of his blinking blade, punishing Scott Borthwick, Ravi Bopara and later Finn, before gifting his wicket away.

Earlier, after opting to take first strike, England was restricted to 220 in 46.1 overs, beaten back by some tight bowling, particularly by the spinners and brilliant catching. Spinners R. Ashwin (three for 38) and Ravindra Jadeja (two for 41). Dhoni let Varun Aaron have a go at the Englishmen went for 14 off his first three overs. But, coming back in the 41st over, he upset the tail-enders, bowling top-scorer Tim Bresnan (45) and also scalping Borthwick and Meaker, to return three for 24 on his debut.

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Abhimanyu Mithun will replace injured paceman Umesh Yadav in the remaining two one-day internationals against England after the bowler suffered a hand injury during the third match in Mohali on Thursday. Yadav injured the webbing on his left hand on Thursday while stopping a Jonathan Trott shot. The next two ODIs will be played in Mumbai (Oct 23) and Kolkata (Oct 25) and Mithun is expected to join the squad ahead of the fourth match.

The Karnataka paceman did a sensibly good job in the recent NKP Salve Challenger Series where he turned up for joint title winners India Green. Mithun becomes the third seamer from the State to join the Indian side which already has R Vinay Kumar and S Arvind in its ranks. Another Karnataka player and opening batsman Robin Uthappa has been picked for the lone T20 international on Oct 29.

This is the first time in more than four years that three players from Karnataka have found place in the national squad. The last such time came in the West Indies during the 2007 World Cup when the Rahul Dravid-led side had Uthappa and Anil Kumble as well.

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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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Delhi born Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir guided India to a complete eight-wicket victory over England in the second one-day international on Monday. The right-left combination made the English attack look disgustingly inadequate and sprayed the ball in all directions. Gambhir may have started unsteadily by getting a couple of lucky boundaries off the edge of his bat, but once he got into the rhythm there was no pardon for the visiting side.

As the scoring picked up pace, Kohli overtook Gambhir in reaching the half-century and later pressed on the accelerator to reach his seventh century in One-Day Internationals. He also reached the 1000-run mark this year to be third on the list of run-getters in ODIs this year, behind Jonathan Trott and Shane Watson. Kohli, in fact, had a complete day. He bowled five overs for just 18 runs, took two catches, scored a strokeful century studded with 16 boundaries.

He was lucky to be around to put the final touches to the chase after being dropped soon after reaching the three-figure mark. Gambhir, who smashed 10 boundaries in his unbeaten 84, played his part to perfection. Earlier, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel and Jonny Bairstow raised visions of setting India a quite challenging total. However, each of these batsmen rotten, exposing the English tail.

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The Indian team is high on confidence after their credible win in the first one-dayer against England in Hyderabad and aim to push the visitors into a corner at the second at the Ferozshah Kotla here on Monday. If India handle to repeat the sort of performance they delivered on Friday, the visitors will be left with the undesirable task of the winning the last three one-dayers to take the series. Both the teams have won a game each against the other on the two occasions they have played here earlier.

“The win in Hyderabad was a big confidence booster. Hopefully, we will take the confidence from that match forward. We have been preparing hard for this series and everyone in the team is keen to do well,” Virat Kohli said. For India, the rich vein of form that skipper M.S. Dhoni showed in the last match is a definite plus. The younger lot, particularly the spinning pair of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, rise to the occasion in the absence of some of the star players.

Suresh Raina, who also played a key role in the first ODI, reported a slight stomach disorder in the morning and had to see a doctor but was seen practicing full strength in the nets later. The Englishmen, who came here riding high on dazzling summer against the world champions at home, are facing a reality check to their claim of being one of the top teams in the world but are upbeat on their chances in the second ODI.

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India's spinners wreaked disaster, after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina starred with the bat, to clinch a 126-run victory over England on Friday in the first of five one-day internationals. Ravindra Jadeja picked up three wickets with his part-time left-arm spin and off-break bowler Ravichandran Ashwin took three more as England, chasing a target of 301, were bundled out for 174 in 36.1 overs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

After electing to bat first India were reduced to 123 for four but Dhoni and Raina helped them to finish on 300 for seven. The home team cracked 150 runs in the last 15 overs as Dhoni and Raina, who survived a close run-out decision on 16, flayed the England attack. Jadeja also contributed with the bat with a 22-ball 27 on a slow wicket. India, playing at home for the first time since winning the 50-over World Cup in April.

The visitors, who left out Ian Bell and selected young Jonny Bairstow instead, suffered a middle order fall down after Captain Alastair Cook fell to Jadeja. Opener Cook hit seven boundaries and put on 71 for the third wicket with Jonathan Trott before he holed out in the deep while trying to up the scoring rate. The second match will be in Delhi on Monday.

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In hope to make amends for the defeat in England, India will once again face their retribution of late - England - in an ODI series that begins with the first match here at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday.MS Dhoni's side had a unhappy time touring England this summer, failing to win even a single match in any form of the game. At the beginning of the summer, they were ranked as the number one Test side, but after a crushing whitewash administered by England, they have dropped to third place.

India will be without their stalwarts Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh, besides badly missing the likes of Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma, all of whom are out due to injuries continued on the recent tour of England. India will be boosted by the return of a fit Gautam Gambhir. Middle order batsman and certainly the future of India's batting Virat Kohli will be the key man in the middle who can be both the aggressor and the anchor as the situation demands.

He was the man RCB counted on in the just concluded Champions League T20 and will surely want to carry that form into this series. Suresh Raina and Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni have played non-stop cricket for long and it showed during the failures in the CLT20.Openers Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane will again have a opportunity to shine in absence of the regular openers and if both continue in the same vain as they did in England, it can really take the pressure of the India's middle and lower order.

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The controversial Hot Spot will not be used in the five-match ODI series between India and England, the head of the company behind the technology has confirmed. BBG Sports chief executive, Warren Brennan, said that his company has determined not to bring the Hot Spot technology for the upcoming ODI series after it did not find BCCI's support."BBG Sports is dissatisfied at how the Hot Spot performed in the UK during the England vs India series.

There were several incidents where we were hoping for improved outcomes from the technology," Brennan said."Following the comments by Mr Srinivasan on September 20th, in relation to Hot Spot and the DRS process, BBG Sports believed it did not have the support of the BCCI and swiftly decided not to bring the Hot Spot to India for their upcoming home series," Brennan added.

In July, the BCCI had agreed to cooperation with the ICC wherein the technology was made compulsory in the use of DRS while ball-tracking technology was made optional. But upon taking over as BCCI president, N Srinivasan reverted to the Board's original stance against the DRS, following Hot Spot's performance on the England tour.

"It is not necessary for me to reside on the correctness of Hot Spot it was there for everyone to see. The BCCI will, at the next ICC meeting, raise the issue. We want to revisit it because we feel that Hot Spot is inadequate. We do not wish to use the DRS in its present form, even in its minimum standard," Srinivasan had said after the BCCI's Annual General Meeting last month.

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Off spinner Harbhajan Singh has been left out of India's squad for the first two ODIs against England on October 14 and 17. Karnataka medium-pacer S Aravind and Punjab leg spinner Rahul Sharma have received their maiden international call-ups. Fast bowler, Varun Aaron who was part of the ODI squad in England, retained his place in the 15-man team. Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary are the other replacements sent to England who kept their spots.

The squad is missing Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma due to injuries continued on the recent tour of England. Fast bowler Ashish Nehra, who had confirmed himself fit after breaking his hand during the World Cup, and all rounder Yusuf Pathan, who was part of the World Cup squad, were not selected.

India's squad contained five batsmen - Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary - two wicketkeeper batsmen - MS Dhoni and Parthiv Patel - and one all rounder in Ravindra Jadeja. The bowling attack comprised five seamers - Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind and Praveen Kumar - and two spinners in R Ashwin and Rahul Sharma.

Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar.

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Kevin Pietersen has been recalled to England's limited-overs squad against India next month. England has five one-day matches against the world champions followed by a Twenty20 match. The England Cricket Board confirmed that Pietersen has been included in the 15-man squad, which includes uncapped Surrey pace bowler Stuart Meaker, but bowler James Anderson has been rested.

Surrey batsman Pietersen had been rested for the current victorious home ODI series against India, the one-off clash with Ireland and the two Twenty20 fixtures against the West Indies. Meaker, 22, was called up last week to try out with the squad in the nets and has done enough to impress the selectors.

Graeme Swann will lead the squad while Stuart Broad is unavailable."Stuart Broad is presently undergoing a period of rehabilitation for a shoulder injury. However he will join the squad in India if he completes his rehabilitation program ahead of schedule,” Miller said.

ODI squad: Alastair Cook (capt), Jonathan Bairstow, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Scott Borthwick, Tim Bresnan, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Stuart Meaker, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott, Chris Woakes

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