With two hundreds from the top three, a Monty Panesar run-out and an outstanding leg-side catch by Matt Prior, England saw fantasy turn into fact at the Rose Bowl last night. Add some 90mph balls by Andrew Flintoff on his international comeback and an incisive first spell by James Anderson and it made for a near-perfect display.

Belligerent critics of the decision to drop Owais Shah were almost muted as Alastair Cook and Ian Bell provided a wonderful start to their two-month odyssey of one-day cricket. Their stand of 178 left India to chase the second-highest score to win an international here, a prospect that died amid confusion and despair.

Cook scored his maiden one-day hundred for England on his sixth appearance and Bell reached the same landmark in his 46th innings, removing concerns that he would be unable to convert starts into more significant contributions.

What must Shah have thought as the partnership began to prosper? Bell timed his innings with precision. Without straying from his comfort zone, he still reached three figures from a run a ball and proceeded to match Kevin Pietersen in the closingI overs, twice stepping away to force Zaheer Khan between mid-off and extra cover with jaw-dropping audacity.

There was actually a trio of players reaching three figures because Anderson became the fifth England bowler to register a century of one-day wickets, after Darren Gough, Ian Botham, Flintoff and Phillip DeFreitas. Once he reduced India to 34 for four in the twelfth over, a winning start to the NatWest Series was all but assured.

Despite striking only eight boundaries in the powerplay overs, England went on to expose the shallowness of the India attack. Cook, in particular, took time to get going once Prior spooned a high catch to mid-on. His first fifty took 74 balls, but the investment proved sounder than many stocks and shares of late as his next half-century arrived from only a further 48.

The turning point came in the precise middle overs when Dravid decided to employ weaker bowlers in tandem. Piyush Chawla, 18, found little turn for either his leg break or googly, while the combination of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh conceded more than a run a ball without threatening.

By the time that Dravid recalled Zaheer, his best bowler, for the 35th over, both Cook and Bell were seeing the ball clearly enough to keep going undaunted. They were more than happy to see Dravid posting five men on the boundary because it allowed them to pierce the wider gaps among the infield and bump up the run-rate with little risk.

Cook showed a strong leg-side bias, with only nine runs coming in the quadrant behind square on the off side. That may have said something for the slow pace of the pitch, but Bell played all around the wicket with huge aplomb. To think that Warwickshire had omitted him for the Friends Provident Trophy semi-final at this same ground in June.

He struck ten fours and a six in total, no doubt grateful that neither Zaheer nor R. P. Singh generated the same swing from the white Kookaburra ball that they managed with the red Duke in the Test series. The corollary, of course, was that the England bowlers could not afford any leeway themselves.

But, assisted by dynamic fielding, they cut through the India top order. A throw by Panesar from mid-off was just flat and fast enough to catch Ganguly out of his crease and clever bowling by Anderson tempted Gautam Gambhir to drive one going away. Tendulkar clipped to mid-wicket and Cook dived to his right at gully to remove Yuvraj.

Flintoff thus joined the attack with India scrambling and, except for the brevity of his spells, he looked the bowler of old. Bounce undid for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and there was a first wicket for Dimitri Mascarenhas, in his fourth game, when Prior responded smartly standing up to the stumps to end Dravid’s unthreatening stay.