Analysis: Richard Hobson

England's hopes of a morale-boosting win in the third one-day international faded as quickly as the light in Kanpur as India won by 16 runs via the Duckworth/Lewis method.

Kevin Pietersen, the England captain, remonstrated angrily with the umpires after India were declared winners having reached 183-5 after 40 overs, chasing 241 before the gloom descended nine overs before the end.

The umpires, Amiesh Saheba and Russell Tiffin, had no option but to offer the light, which had deteriorated rapidly, to the batsmen, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan, who accepted safe in the knowledge that India were ahead of the required scoring rate.

The decision infuriated Pietersen, with Green Park's powerful floodlights remaining unused as the teams walked off the ground. The match had been reduced to 49 overs a side after fog delayed the start of the match for 45 minutes, which was later to prove crucial.

"It is frustrating," Pietersen said. "It would have been nice to get a full match in today, but the weather dictated otherwise. It was getting dark at 4.30. But the umpires made their decision, and that's the way it is - so we come out on bottom again."

It was a disappointing end to an enthralling contest as England produced their best performance of the series to date. Virender Sehwag (68) and Yuvraj Singh (38) gave India the platform, while Andrew Flintoff (3-31) was the pick of England's much improved bowling attack.

Flintoff claimed a wicket in the first over of each of his three spells. Dangerman Gautam Gambhir was caught at third man for 14 attempting to flat-bat Flintoff over the offside, while Suresh Raina was on the receiving end of some hostile treatment from the Lancashire all-rounder before he played one on to his stumps off Stuart Broad for just one.

Sehwag and Robin Sharma then steadied the ship before Graeme Swann had the latter caught behind by Prior for 28. That brought the man-of-the-moment Yuvraj to the crease to a thunderous welcome and the pair began to accelerate before Sehwag fell to a superb catch by Paul Collingwood off Flintoff.

With the match keenly poised and Dhoni playing an unaccustomed blocker's role, Yuvraj looked to take the game away from England with some big hitting, not least a straight six back over bowler Swann's head in an over that cost 14 runs.

Flintoff then struck to give England hope as Yuvraj holed out to Broad on the boundary rope.

But the batting powerplay, reduced to four overs per side, proved the difference, with Dhoni (29 not out) and Pathan (12 not out) hammering 38 to ensure they had a healthy lead over the D/L target and the pair hung on to ensure victory and a 3-0 lead in the series.

Earlier, England had failed to build on a promising start from their new-look batting line-up as India's spinners restricted them to a modest total.

Successive defeats in Rajkot and Indore persuaded the tourists to re-jig the order as well as replacing Steve Harmison with spinner Swann.

But from being well-placed on 80 for one at the end of the bowling powerplay after 15 overs, England once again lost momentum, with India's spinners claiming four key wickets. England were dismissed for 240 in 48.4 overs.

The decision to promote Ravi Bopara to open for the first time at this level was a big gamble that paid off after England won the toss and chose to bat.

Bopara and Ian Bell forged a 79-run opening stand that was broken in the 15th over when Bell, who had raced to 46 off 47 balls, edged Munaf behind when trying to guide the ball down to third man. His departure brought Pietersen to the crease - moving himself up to his old position as one of the many changes to the order and allowing Owais Shah to drop down.

It was not a change that succeeded, Pietersen falling five overs later as he attempted to hit Harbhajan Singh over the top, only to pick out Zaheer Khan at long-off.

Harbhajan, who finished with three for 31 from his ten overs, struck again in his next over, luring Paul Collingwood out of his crease and beating him with the doosra to allow Dhoni to complete the stumping.

Bopara moved to 60, his highest one-day international score, before becoming England's fourth wicket to fall in 12 overs when he was also stumped, pushing forward to Yuvraj Singh's left-arm spin.

Flintoff also fell to spin, walking across his stumps to be lbw to Yusuf Pathan's second ball and without him England added only 21 runs in their four batting powerplay overs. Needing to force the pace without their biggest hitter, England subsided and lost five wickets in the final six overs.

Despite suffering his third successive defeat, Pietersen said there were 'positives' to be drawn from his team's latest performance. "It's unfortunate to be on the losing side again, but there are definitely areas we improved on. We are getting closer," he said.

"We had a real a good chance of finishing on top. The boys came in, fought hard and showed aggression. When you play for England you play for the badge and you play hard - and today we had a real good go at it and showed real good character."

Pietersen now believes the key will be for one of England's top order to make a major contribution. "It would be nice for one of our batters to get a big big score," he added. "India have got two hundreds so far this series, and we haven't had one. At the end of the day we are getting closer, and there are still four games to go - so you never know.

"It's not good enough. We have to score more hundreds to become more competitive."

The fourth match in the series will be played in Bangalore on Sunday with England needing to win the remaining four matches to claim an unlikely series victory.