England, with their third successive defeat - two against India and one against Pakistan -- are out of contention and their match against Pakistan tomorrow will be of mere academic interest.

It was basically a rejuvenated Indian performance today. Led dynamically by Ajay Jadeja, the team looked much different from the one which lost the first match to Pakistan. They bowled well, batted much better and fielded exceptionally well. Jadeja led from the front with an unbeaten 74 and inspired his teammates by his exemplary fielding and bowling changes.

However, England, chasing a target of 240, came close to upsetting India's calculations especially when Darren Gough struck Srinath for asix over mid-wicket in the penultimate over. But a mix-up between him and Angus Fraser resulted in the third run out of the innings.

Opener Nick Knight laid the foundation for England's recovery after they had lost four wickets for only 66 runs. The Warwickshire player was in a murderous mood, taking a heavy toll of Srinath in the initial overs. England shuffled their batting, bringing Vince Wells and Mark Ealham ahead of Grame Hick, Graham Thorpe and Neil Fairbrother. The move to keep their best players back almost paid off, but in the end, the Indians' aggressiveness on the field had the last say. Prasad, who bowled economically and grabbed three crucial wickets, was named the Man of the Match.

Earlier, the Indian middle-order showed more urgency to score runs quickly despite some accurate bowling by the Englishmen -- especially Angus Fraser who bowled three maiden overs -- and some tight and brilliant fielding and catching.

Jadeja, stand-in skipper for an injured Mohammed Azharuddin, came up with anaggressive effort while Rahul Dravid notched up his 17th one-day half century -- his first in three innings here -- to give India a respectable total at the end of their 50 overs.

Jadeja, whose master stroke of bowling the 47th over with the Englishmen on the verge of victory in the earlier game two days ago, made another bold decision today. He sent in Javagal Srinath at No 5, ahead of himself, and Robin Singh to accelerate the rate of scoring when the English bowlers seemed to have the upper hand with some accurate spells. The move paid off as Srinath, using the long handle, struck 28 in almost run-a-ball and added 59 runs with his Karnataka team-mate Dravid for the fourth wicket.

Ganguly once again failed to come up with a decent score, getting out in the fifth over and Ramesh played an indiscreet shot too early in his innings to perish.

Vinod Kambli, coming in place of Azharuddin, stayed long enough with Dravid to redeem the situation to some extent before a brilliant running catch by Hick ended hispromising innings. To begin with, the left-hander from Mumbai looked short of confidence and match practice but once he started middling the ball, he looked set for a bigger score.

Dravid's problem all along has been his inability to rotate the strike and to find gaps through the well-set field. Today, again, he took as many as 15 balls to get off the mark, a single to third man off Fraser. Later, he showed his aggressive tendencies by cracking two successive boundaries off Gough in the 11th over -- first a short arm pull and then a cracking on-drive off a no-ball.

Dravid reached his 50 off 70 deliveries with the help of six fours but an unfortunate run-out saw the end of his innings.

The fact that Jadeja is most comfortable at No 6 was more than testified by the way he went for quick singles and did not lose any opportunity to take cheeky singles despite England's fielding being at its best. The skipper reached his 50 off just 53 balls and struck five fours although he took a long time to strike hisfirst boundary.

For the first time in the current competition, the Indians were able to score freely in the slog overs. As many as 42 runs were scored in the final five overs with Mongia keeping pace with Jadeja.

Scoreboard

INDIA: Ramesh c Wells b Fraser 12, Ganguly b Gough 2, Dravid run out (Fairbrother) 63, Kambli c Hick b Ealham 23, Srinath c&b Hick 28, Jadeja (not out) 74, Robin c Fairbrother b Gough 18, Mongia (not out) 11; Did not bat: Kumble, Joshi, Prasad; Extras: (lb-2, nb-4, w-2) 8Total (for six wickets, in 50 overs) 239

Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Ganguly, 4.2 over), 2-16 (Ramesh, 5.2), 3-61 (Kambli, 19.3), 4-120 (Srinath, 29.3), 5-149 (Dravid, 36.1), 6-207 (Robin, 46.1)

Bowling: Gough 10-2-49-2, Fraser 10-3-24-1, Austin 7-0-49-0, Flintoff 8-043-0, Ealham 10-041-0, Hick 3-0-13-1, Wells 2-0-18-0.

ENGLAND: Knight b Kumble 84, Stewart lbw Srinath 2, Wells c&b Prasad 7, Ealham run out 7, Hick st Mongia b Kumble 1, Thorpe st Mongia b Joshi 87,Flintoff run out 3, Fairbrother b Prasad 16,Austin b Prasad 2, Gough (not out) 20, Fraser (run out) 1; Extras: (b1, lb4, nb3) 8, Total (all out, 8.5 overs) 230

Fall of wickets: 1-26 (Stewart, 8.1), 2-41 (Wells, 9.4), 3-55 (Ealham, 12.1), 4-66 (Hick, 16.), 5-125 (Knight, 28.2), 6-131 (Flintoff, 30.5), 7-184 (Fairbrother, 41.4), 8-188 (Austine, 43.2), 9-219 (Thorpe, 47.3)Bowling: Srinath 9.5-0-64-1, Prasad 10-2-35-3, Kumble 10-2-28-2, Robin 5-0-25-0, Joshi 9-0-54-1, Ganguly 4-0-17-0, Jadeja 2-0-2-0.

Man of the Match: V Prasad

Azhar sits out with swollen toe

Injuries seem to be chasing the fittest player in the Indian team. After having to miss the latter part of the recent tri-nation tournament in India owing to a shoulder injury, Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin had to miss today's game against England in the Coca Cola Cup because of a swollen toe of his right foot.

``He is not able to wear shoes as the toe is still swollen. If the swelling doesn't reduceby evening, we may puncture it,'' team doctor Ravinder Chaddha informed this morning.

Azhar had hit the toe with his bat while facing Andrew Flintoff in India's earlier game on Friday and did not take the field during England's innings. Vice-captain Ajay Jadeja, who led India to a sensational victory on Friday, again led India today in Azhar's absence. ``After two days rest, Azhar will be fit to play against Pakistan on Tuesday,'' Chaddha said.

Fortunately for India, wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia, who was hit on the chin on Friday and received four stitches, was declared fit to play.

Meanwhile, Ajit Agarkar, Amay Khurasia and Nikhil Chopra who are down with viral fever are reported to be on way to recovery. All were at the ground today, alongwith Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Rohan Gavaskar.