Brisbane: A spineless India suffered their second consecutive defeat as England crushed them by nine wickets with a bonus point, throwing their cricket tri-series campaign in jeopardy here on Tuesday.
Electing to bat, India were bundled out for 153 in 39.3 overs with the top-five batsmen returning to the dressing room with just 67 runs on board by the 19th over on a lively Gabba track.
Steven Finn (5/33) and his pace colleague James Anderson (4/18) exploited the pacer-friendly deck to the hilt by extracting extra bounce as the Indians, barring Roger Binny (44), struggled to come to terms.
Binny was the lone Indian batsman to show some resilience on a day when the others got out due to poor shot selection.
Opener Ajinkya Rahane (33), Virat Kohli (4), Ambati Rayudu (23) and Suresh Raina (1) were out playing poor shots, while Shikhar Dhawan (1) fell to a beauty from Anderson in the third over of the India innings.
England chased down the easy target with more than 22 overs to spare to collect five points, including a bonus point, from the comprehensive win.
Opener Ian Bell led the England run chase with a 91-ball unbeaten 88 while James Taylor also scored an unbeaten half century (56 not out from 63 balls) to take their side home.
The duo stitched 131 runs for the unconquered second wicket stand as they negotiated the Indian bowlers without much difficulty on a pitch that seemed to have demons while the Indians were batting.
Taylor hit the winning runs, a four, as England reached 156 for one in 27.3 overs to wrap up the match.
The other English opener, Moeen Ali (8), was dismissed cheaply off the bowling of Binny, who opened the Indian bowling during the first session as England batted before the break after India folded early.
Australia are now on top of table with nine points from two matches while England have five points from two games.
India will now have to win both their remaining matches if they are to qualify for the final.
England started their chase before the schedule innings’ break and were placed at 41/1 from six overs with Bell and Taylor batting on 28 and three respectively.
After the resumption of play, India did not show any urgency or energy in the field as Bell and Taylor went about accumulating runs without any worries.
They brought up the 50-mark in the eighth over as runs flowed easily enough with the Indian bowlers not making an impression after a listless batting performance.
Thereafter, Bell brought up his 32nd ODI fifty off 50 balls as the 100-mark came up in the 19th over.
The duo also celebrated their 100-run partnership for the second wicket, off just 111 balls, in the 22nd over.
Shortly after, Taylor too celebrated his third ODI half-century off 58 balls as they completed India’s ruinous day.
Bell finished at 88 not out (91 balls, 8 fours) and Taylor was unbeaten on 56 (63 balls, 4 fours) as England won in a canter.
The only bright spark for India was Binny’s all-round performance.
He scored 44 runs (55 balls, 3×4, 2×6) earlier and was the only Indian batsman to show some resilience amid some poor shot selection by the rest of the line-up.
This was after India had won the toss and elected to bat first once again.
They made two changes with Rohit Sharma missing out due to a sore hamstring and Rayudu coming into the side as his replacement. R Ashwin was also left out for Binny.
England made one change from their opening match against Australia, with Anderson coming in for Chris Jordan.
Rahane opened the innings with Dhawan who once again did not last long at the crease. At least he was not guilty of a poor shot-making as Anderson had him caught behind, in the third over, off one that neatly moved away.
The fast bowler bowled a stifling opening spell even as Rahane and Rayudu stayed together long enough to get a start.
Only 36 runs came in the first 10 overs but that did not matter as long as the Indian batsmen made the latter half of the innings count.
Instead they decided to throw their wickets away, starting with Rahane who advanced against Finn in the 15th over of the innings, only to lob a simple catch to mid-on.
It opened the floodgates with Kohli trying to run the ball past slips two overs later, but no width from Finn meant he was caught behind.
In the very next over, Raina foolishly charged Moeen Ali (1/31) and was stumped, comprehensively beaten by his turn and bounce.
It got worse with Rayudu getting in the same manner as Kohli, off Finn in the 19th over, as India collapsed to 67/5.
Binny then arrived at the crease and together with skipper Dhoni (34, 61 balls, 1×4) put on the only fruitful partnership of the innings for his team.
Together, they batted for 17.1 overs and put on 70 runs for the sixth wicket taking the score past the 100-mark in the 29th over.
It came in good time for India had crossed the 50-mark in only the 13th over after which the batting order had completely collapsed.
England feared that the settled partnership might take the batting powerplay early.
That did not happen and when the powerplay was taken as scheduled, Dhoni was dropped by Anderson off his own bowling in the 36th over.
The captain was on 33 then but could not capitalize as Finn struck immediately to remove him in the next over, the batsman caught behind going for a hook shot.
He then bowled Akshar Patel (0) first ball, for his first five-wicket haul in ODI cricket, but the hat-trick was avoided by Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5).
Anderson then removed Binny, Kumar and Mohammad Shami (1) in the space of 13 balls to end the miserable Indian innings in the 40th over itself.
Stuart Broad (0/33) and Chris Woakes (0/35) were the other bowlers deployed. (PTI)
