Teenager Suresh Raina struck a valiant 81 not out on Friday as India overcame an early collapse to beat England by four wickets in the second limited-overs international.
Raina and Mahendra Dhoni (38) combined for a 118-run, sixth-wicket partnership to help India recover from a 92-5 slump and overhaul a 227-run victory target to lead the series 2-0.
Raina scored his maiden half-century in his 15th one-dayer to snuff out England’s hope of levelling the seven-match series.
Earlier, India’s spinners exploited a slow Nahar Singh Stadium wicket to bowl the visitors out for 226 runs after skipper Andrew Flintoff, playing in his 100th one-dayer, won the toss and elected to bat first.
England’s lone spin bowler for the match, Ian Blackwell, struck two major blows and brought the visitors back into the game by clean bowling Virender Sehwag (26) and Yuvraj Singh (18) when both batsmen appeared to be settling in.
Gautam Gambhir, who joined Sehwag for a 61-run, first-wicket partnership, departed after scoring 29 runs. A delivery from seamer James Anderson bounced on him and he offered a simple return catch.
India captain Rahul Dravid ran himself out for five runs while Mohammed Kaif was trapped lbw by seamer Liam Plunkett and departed without scoring for the third consecutive match.
Raina and Dhoni went on to steer India to victory without further hiccups. Dhoni was dismissed when India needed just 17 runs to win.
Raina’s knock included one six and eight boundaries.
England, too, suffered a mild collapse and owed their score to half-centuries from Kevin Pietersen (71) and opener Andrew Strauss (61), the only batsmen to defy India offspinners Ramesh Powar (3-34) and Harbhajan Singh (1-43).
Smashing two sixes and four boundaries, Pietersen reached a personal landmark — equalling West Indian Vivian Richards’s feat of scoring 1 000 runs in just 21 matches. Former skipper Mike Atherton held the previous English record of scoring the fastest 1 000 runs in 25 matches.
Strauss reached his eighth half-century off 72 balls, including six boundaries, before he was clean bowled by Powar.
Singh — who took a career-best 5-31 in the first one-dayer, which India won by 39 runs — struck from the other end, trapping Matthew Prior lbw for 33 runs.
Flintoff was dismissed for just five runs, stumped by Dhoni as he stepped out to hit Powar and missed the ball. Indian seamer Shantakumaran Sreesanth polished off the England tail by taking 3-40.
India and England will play the third limited-overs international in the western Indian city of Goa on April 3. — Sapa-AP