England v India, 3rd ODI, The Oval

India fight back before rain arrives

20 overs England 95 for 3 (Bell 4*, Stokes 3*) need another 140 for beat India 234 for 7 (Jadeja 78, Dhoni 69, Anderson 3-48)

	R Ashwin spun one past Jonathan Trott's outside edge as India fought back strongly © Getty Images Enlarge

An aggressive Craig Kieswetter seemed to have set England on their way to registering a first win batting second in a day-nighter at The Oval, but India's slower bowlers brought India right back.

Kieswetter toyed around with Praveen Kumar and RP Singh, charging at them, making room, hitting them over both midwicket and extra cover, scoring 51 off 46, but the rest scored 46 off 74 balls. Munaf Patel'a accuracy got Alastair Cook, Ravindra Jadeja's arm ball accounted for Kieswetter, and R Ashwin's carrom ball got rid of Jonathan Trott to convert 63 for 0 to 89 for 3 minutes before rain interrupted play.

Kieswetter continued from where he had left at Rose Bowl. Praveen made a decent start, RP's return to The Oval was much better than his effort in the Test, but Kieswetter liked their in-between pace. He could jump down the track, and had enough time to go inside-out or inside-in. When he hit the sixes - over midwicket off Praveen, and over extra cover off Munaf - batting looked at its easiest today.

Munaf brought semblance of control with his wicket-to-wicket stuff, and Cook - struggling for momentum - played and missed across one that landed in front of middle and would have hit the middle of middle stump. Kieswetter still went strong, though, but Jadeja managed to cast doubt in his mind.

His wicket came in a manner spinners dream wickets. One arm ball hit his pad, the next offbreak ripped across him, and the next arm ball took the middle stump out.

At the other end Trott struggled to get the spinners off the square too. MS Dhoni and India sensed something. The fields came in, the lbw appeals increased in number, and then the carrom ball took the top of off. A nervous Ben Stokes survived a few lbw shouts immediately after, on each occasion managing to get the pad outside the line of off just in time.

The shower began around the 19th over, and caught the teams by surprise. Neither team seemed to know where it stood vis-à-vis Duckworth-Lewis. England looked to slow proceedings down in the 20th over, India rushed through it a bit. The teams went off after the 20th over. Turned out, England were five runs ahead of the par score.

50 overs India 234 for 7 (Jadeja 78, Dhoni 69, Anderson 3-48) v England

	James Anderson made short work of India's top order© Getty Images Enlarge

Ravindra Jadeja scored his international best, MS Dhoni came close to his highest score of the tour, the two put together India's third-highest partnership of the tour, R Ashwin followed up with a cameo in the Batting Powerplay, but India were in such crisis before all that happened that the target was nothing more than respectable. On a green track, under overcast skies, England had India down at 25 for 4 and 58 for 5, but couldn't quite administer the knockout blow.

Dhoni and Jadeja - the latter has barely been in England for 24 hours - ran hard between the wickets, placed balls well, and helped India recover from an early James Anderson assault. Anderson swung and seamed the ball around in a first spell of seven overs for 24 runs and three wickets, and also chipped in with a smart direct-hit to get rid of Rahul Dravid. Once the recovery job was done, though, Alastair Cook wilted a touch in the Batting Powerplay as India looted 60 off the last five overs despite the loss of Dhoni's wicket.

Perhaps the pitch had eased out by then. For earlier, the top order struggled to handle the movement and menace of Anderson and Tim Bresnan. The two got the ball to move either way from short-of-driving lengths, but Anderson picked up the wickets. Ajinkya Rahane fatally chased an outswinger in the first over, Parthiv Patel played all over a rare full ball in the seventh, Dravid kept looking over his shoulder when trying to steal a quick single, and Virat Kohli edged one outside off in the 11th.

Suresh Raina had a horror stay at the wicket, and looked to slog his way out. One of the slogs failed to connect, another went out of the ground, and the final one - off Stuart Broad - took the toe edge of the bat through to the keeper. India still had 31 overs to bat.

By then, though, the ball was moving less, the second string of bowlers didn't provide that much threat, and Dhoni and Jadeja put their legs to a solid test. They didn't risk losing wickets by trying to hit the bowlers off their rhythm, but they tested every single fielder with every single hit. They took 23 overs to reach 101 runs for the stand. England didn't completely back off during that spell, but there still remained a distinct middle-overs feel to the ease with which the two could find gaps.

In the 44th over, with both their fifties reached, they asked for the Powerplay. The first over they saw off, but in the second Dhoni skied a low full toss from Bresnan. It seemed that once again England were going to ruthlessly crush India just before a comeback was about to assume meaningful proportions. The script changed for a while here.

Jade Dernbach's slower balls became predictable, Ashwin upper-cut Bresnan, Anderson bowled length, and Cook didn't know what to do with the fields. The bowlers didn't help by not bowling to their fields. Ashwin scored 36 off 19, punching, upper-cutting, scooping, but he knew he and his bowling partners would need a much better show if India were to register their first international win on the tour.