At the end, England must’ve been wondering what else they need to do to win a game in India. If it was Yuvraj Singh’s centuries in Rajkot and Indore that took the games away from them, it was bad light in Kanpur that ensured England ended Thursday three down in the seven-match ODI series.

The visitors, for once, did many things right at Green Park in their quest to mount a comeback in the series. Openers Ian Bell and Ravindra Bopara got off to a solid start, and their frontline bowlers Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad bowled with fire to rattle the Indian top-order. But the failure of the England team management in handling the fading light, more than anything else, seemed to cost them the game.

On the other side, Mahendra Singh Dhoni had done his homework well in advance, keeping India ahead of the asking rate right through as per the Duckworth/Lewis system. The hosts eventually won by 16 runs as bad light predictably forced the match to end 40 overs into the Indian chase, which finished on 198 for five, comfortably clear of the 182 needed at that stage with five wickets in hand.

There had been some nerves early on when Broad and Flintoff bowled with purpose to dismiss Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina in quick time. But a gritty 68 by Virender Sehwag and a crucial 52-run partnership between Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni first settled the innings and then gave it some impetus.

Different strokes

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