Birmingham: Indian bowlers produced a disciplined effort to bowl out England for a below par 206 with Moeen Ali's 67 being the top-score for the hosts in the fourth One-day International here today.
Ali's second ODI fifty helped give England's score a semblance of respectability as the hosts were bundled out in 49.3 overs after being invited to bat at Edgbaston where they wasted a perfect first-use of a good batting surface as only three batsmen crossed the 20-run mark.
Ali faced 50 balls, hitting four boundaries and three sixes, while Mohammad Shami (3-28) ended up as India's best bowler on the day. He was ably supported by Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-14) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-40), while R Ashwin (1-48) and Suresh Raina (1-36) were the other wicket-takers.
Also see: England vs India scoreboard, Fourth ODI
Playing his first ODI, Dhawal Kulkarni (0-35) went wicket-less in his seven overs.
Earlier, Indian skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and again elected to bowl first. The visitors were forced to make a change after Mohit Sharma was declared unfit owing to his twisted-ankle in the last game, paving the way for Kulkarni.
England made three changes. Ian Bell was ruled out with a toe injury bringing in Gary Ballance, while James Tredwell and Ben Stokes made way for Ali and Harry Gurney respectively.
Alastair Cook (9) and Alex Hales (6) then started out for the hosts, but after two half-century opening stands, they didn't get off to a good start this time. Despite the wicket looking the best for batting so far in this series, the Indian bowlers kept a tight leash on the pairing. Cook looked to break free with a couple boundaries in the fourth over but it wasn't enough.
Kumar bowled an impressive opening spell of eight overs, with figures of 2-14 along with three maiden overs. And he accounted for both the openers in the fifth over, first bowling Hales with a sharp in-swinger and then having Cook at gully by Suresh Raina. The double-blow became more intense when Shami got rid of Ballance (7) three overs later.
It was a repeat of England's poor ODI performances in the series as a disaster loomed large. Dhoni didn't bring his spinner on early when the pitch had a little more moisture in it. It was only in the 18th over that spin was first introduced in the form of Ashwin as England didn't reach the 50-run mark until the 19th over of the innings.
