Cricket:England had no response to Mahendra Singh Dhoni's powerful hitting on the way to a chastening 126-run defeat against India in today's first one-day international at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium.
Dhoni (87 not out) and Suresh Raina (55) transformed India’s innings after they had initially struggled after choosing to bat first, the hosts eventually piling up a daunting 300 for seven.
England, who have only twice won chasing 300 or more, were given a good start by their captain Alastair Cook (60), but his team-mates came up worryingly short. Five wickets fell for only 23 runs, starting with Cook’s, to leave England 134 for seven in the 29th over — a collapse from which there could be no feasible recovery.
England were strangled by pace off the ball on a slow surface, with six wickets shared between left-arm orthodox Ravindra Jadeja (three for 34) and off-spinner R Ashwin (three for 35) in the first game of a hectic five-match series.
India’s top order had also found it hard to get going on a pitch which appeared to favour containing bowlers over attacking batsmen. But Dhoni and Raina became sufficiently attuned to conditions to cash in with 59 runs for the loss of one wicket in a late batting powerplay, gathering enough momentum for India to then blast another 92 off the last 10 overs.
Without a limited-overs series win here since 1984/85, England are out to follow up their 3-0 victory over the same opponents on home turf in last month’s NatWest Series.
But they did not help themselves by bowling 12 wides and Dhoni, Raina and Jadeja hit 16 fours and five sixes between them from 147 balls to turn what seemed set to be merely a near-par total into something much more challenging.