India’s summer of discontent showed no signs of ending on Tuesday after a captain’s knock by Alastair Cook ensured England romped to a seven-wicket win in the rain-shortened second one-dayer at Southampton.
Five months after lifting the World Cup amid joyous celebrations on home soil, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men were left to digest their sixth successive international defeat during what is turning out to be a wretched tour of England.
After being humiliated 4-0 in the Test series, India also came off second best in a Twenty20 match last week.
Photo: AFP
Rain washed out the first one-dayer in Durham and India will probably be wishing Tuesday’s match had been a washout as well after a torrential downpour delayed the start by almost five hours.
Once the weather relented, Ajinkya Rahane made the most of his role as stand-in opener to score his first ODI half-century in only his second one-dayer.
With regular openers Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag ruled out of the series injured, Rahane rattled up 54 off 47 balls as he shared a 79-run partnership with Rahul Dravid (32).
A quickfire 40 off 19 balls from Suresh Raina helped India to post what looked like a respectable 187 for eight in a match reduced to 23 overs a side.
However, Cook took it upon himself to ensure India’s losing run continued.
He found the wet outfield to his liking and punished India’s toothless bowlers by smacking the ball all over the ground.
He carried his bat to remain not out on 80 from 63 deliveries, belting a six and five fours to continue his rich vein of form. Samit Patel hit the winning run to carry England over the finishing line with five balls to spare.
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