The game may have ended in a shambles but no blame can be attached to India and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, their astute captain. Dhoni worked out that the light would deteriorate and made sure, in the final minutes before the inevitable offer came to effectively end the game, that his side did not lose the wickets that would have left them behind on the Duckworth/Lewis rate.

Dhoni used the new powerplay rule intelligently, ensuring that he and Yuvraj Singh were set before enforcing the fielding restrictions. Although Yuvraj lost his way, a total of 38 runs came from the four overs, leaving India with the initiative. It was the first time in the three matches that the innovative regulation introduced by the ICC at the start of October has been influential.

For all that, questions need to be asked over why the game was allowed to end before time. Anybody who has been in Kanpur this week knew that the light starts to fade around four o'clock in the afternoon. A starting time of 9am was cutting it fine for a 4.45 scheduled finish but, in reality, tight chases always put back the end. Remember those moonlit endings to old Gillette Cup matches in the 70s?

This time, fog (or it may have been smog) delayed the first ball until 9.45, but play could have started at least 15 minutes earlier without England being handicapped. The second mistake of the officials was to dock just a single over from each innings instead of reducing the break between innings. Those two decisions created a farce that was waiting to happen.

England can reflect on an improved performance. The restructured batting order with Ravi Bopara opening alongside Ian Bell has a certain merit and Kevin Pietersen is back where he should be, at number three. Bell and Bopara played themselves in before piercing the outfield, but one of them needed to go on to a hundred, or not far short. Spin, again, caused problems in the middle third.

The total was probably around 30 runs short, but Andrew Flintoff bowled with great hostility and reached speeds beyond 90mph. Graeme Swann threatened and should retain his place for the rest of the series. But James Anderson has now taken a single wicket in his past nine games and his uninterrupted run stretching back to the start of the 2007 World Cup may be approaching its end.