Publications
Partners
Birmingham - Bhuvneshwar Kumar has made an early double strike from which England never truly recovered as they were dismissed for just 206 by India in the fourth one-day international at Edgbaston on Tuesday.
World champions India, eyeing a series victory at 2-0 up with two to play, saw Kumar reduce England to 16 for two with two wickets in the fifth over.
Swing bowler Kumar returned impressive figures of two for 14 in an unchanged eight overs, including three maidens, at the start of the innings.
Fellow paceman Mohammed Shami followed up with three for 28 in 7.3.
Moeen Ali, recalled in place of the dropped James Tredwell, top-scored with 67 -- England's first fifty of the series.
But by the time the No 7 had come in the damage had been done.
Only Joe Root (44) and Eoin Morgan (32), who put on 80 for the fourth wicket, also made significant contributions to England's meagre total .
Whereas spin had proved the main cause of England's undoing in 133-run and six-wicket defeats in Cardiff and Nottingham respectively, on Tuesday they were 23 for three before a slow bowler came on.
Kumar struck twice in four balls to remove both Alex Hales and England captain Alastair Cook after India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss.
Hales (six) was bowled by the first ball he received from Kumar when completely defeated by an inswinger.
Three balls later Cook (nine) cut Kumar low to Suresh Raina in the gully, making it 38 innings since his last ODI hundred.
First change Shami, then had Gary Ballance, recalled in place of the injured Ian Bell, caught in the covers off a gentle leading edge as the left-hander aimed across the line.
England were 48 for three off 17 overs when Dhoni brought on a spinner in Ravichandran Ashwin, man-of-the-match at Nottingham's Trent Bridge ground on Saturday with three for 39.
However it was left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja who ended a promising partnership when Morgan, whom he might have had lbw with his first ball, turned him straight to Raina at leg-slip.
And 103 for four became 114 for five when Root carelessly top-edged a reverse-sweep off spinner Raina to debutant Dhawal Kulkarni, positioned for the shot, at short third man.
Root faced 81 balls, including just two fours.
But local hero Ali, born in Birmingham, pulled Ashwin for the first six of the innings in the 37th over.
Left-hander Ali, unlike so many England batsmen in this series, then used his feet well against spin to advance down the pitch and drive Ashwin for an elegant straight six.
However, a stand worth exactly 50 came to an end when Jos Buttler (11) missed a nip-backer from Shami and was given out lbw by umpire Paul Reiffel.
Ali completed a 37-ball fifty in style when he thrashed Raina over midwicket for six.
But his 50-ball knock, featuring four fours and three sixes, ended when he was bowled by Ashwin making room for a big shot.
