It was ten to midnight and bats were darting under the stand roofs when India completed the victory that means they have won the series at the earliest opportunity, just as they did two years ago. Kevin Pietersen called afterwards for a revision of Duckworth/Lewis calculations to account for the new powerplay rules, but also admitted that India had taken an unassailable 4-0 lead entirely on merit.

Once again the England bowlers were put to the sword as Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir mixed power and placement with deceptive intelligence. They insured against the loss of early wickets so that the target would be stiffened by a generous Duckworth/Lewis mark-up as foul weather approached. Then, when the contest was recalibrated as a 22-over affair after heavy rain, spin bowling was savaged by Yuvraj Singh.

England were too conservative in their response, declining to promote one of their experienced hitters and paying the price as they scored only 21 runs from the first six powerplay overs. Even when Owais Shah and Andrew Flintoff dominated in mid-innings they struggled to bring down the required rate significantly and the return of the outstanding Zaheer Khan for the batting powerplay proved decisive.

Pietersen, the captain, suggested that England have still not found their best one-day XI — given results here it would be alarming if they had — and pledged renewed effort in the “dead” fixtures and subsequent Test matches. “We have to keep this series competitive,” he said. “We are in India for five more weeks so we must start winning some games of cricket. I don’t want to see anybody with their head down.”

One of the first tasks is to decide whether to call in a replacement for Ryan Sidebottom, who has been ruled out of the series because of a torn side muscle. There is no shortage of candidates now that the performance squad has set up base in Bangalore: Tim Bresnan was in the party for the South Africa series in the summer and Monty Panesar is an intriguing option if Pietersen wants another spinner.

The way that India capitalised on the early stages contrasted with the more cautious England response. By the time of the first interruption, after 14 overs, India had 82 on the board. James Anderson is lacking confidence and Stuart Broad struggled for consistency, although he did bowl Sachin Tendulkar immediately after a short delay while the groundstaff hammered at footmarks to level the landing point for bowlers.

Once the game became little more than a Twenty20, England could draw on their recent Stanford experience in the format. However, the breaks and adjustments meant that India had 17 powerplay overs in total, against England’s eight. That was unlucky, but things did not go against Pietersen altogether. He knew that Duckworth and Lewis would probably be involved when he won the toss, and India had to bowl throughout with a wet ball.

The shortened contest meant that England’s frontline seam bowlers had already delivered their allocation when India resumed to face their last five overs. With Pietersen opting for spin, they scored 60 runs including six sixes in that period. It could have been worse but for a mature final over by Samit Patel, who yorked Mahendra Singh Dhoni only for Yusuf Pathan to strike the final ball into the stand.

Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara failed to give the reply the impetus it needed, but Shah showed why Middlesex are so keen for him to play in the Champions League next month with strong hitting, especially on the leg side, and Flintoff struck Harbhajan

for a longer six than anything from Sehwag or Yuvraj. But Shah fell to a full toss early in the batting power-play and when Flintoff followed in the next over, the game — and series — was up.

India
V Sehwag c Anderson b Swann 69
S R Tendulkar b Broad 11
G Gambhir c Anderson b Swann 40
Yuvraj Singh not out 25
*†M S Dhoni b Patel 9
Y K Pathan not out 6
Extras (b 1, lb 1, w 4) 6
Total (4 wkts, 22 overs) 166

S K Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and M M Patel did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-117, 3-142, 4-160.

Bowling: Anderson 5-0-33-0; Broad 6-1-49-1; Flintoff 5-0-20-0; Patel 3-0-24-1; Swann 2-0-21-2; Pietersen 1-0-17-0.

England
R S Bopara c Ishant b Patel 1
I R Bell b Harbhajan 12
O A Shah c Tendulkar b Zaheer 72
*K P Pietersen b Ishant 5
A Flintoff c Zaheer b Ishant 41
P D Collingwood c Tendulkar b Patel 22
S R Patel c Gambhir b Zaheer 11
G P Swann run out 5
†M J Prior not out 0
S C J Broad not out 0
Extras (b 3, lb 2, w 3, nb 1) 9
Total (8 wkts, 22 overs) 178

J M Anderson did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-44, 3-52, 4-134, 5-141, 6-161, 7-178, 8-178.

Bowling: Zaheer 5-0-20-2; Patel 4-1-22-2; Ishant 5-0-41-2; Pathan 1-0-17-0; Harbhajan 4-0-42-1; Yuvraj 3-0-31-0.

Umpires: D J Harper (Australia) and A M Saheba.

Man of the match: V Sehwag.

India lead the seven-match series 4-0.