From the iSport Cricket Pavilion: A blistering captain's knock of 75* from 69 deliveries coupled with a crucial bowling spell of 4/33 from Ravindra Jadeja helped India thrash England by 95 runs and complete a 5-0 whitewash at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
England won the toss, elected to field but their decision backfired as Indian openers gave the home side a reasonably good start adding 80 runs for the first wicket. Openers Gautam Gambhir and Ajinkya Rahane took a sensible approach rotating the strike and hitting an odd boundary every over.
The pair carried on till the 18th over before Gambhir, who was lucky to survive a dropped chance in the 12th over, inside edged one onto the stumps on 38 off Finn. Finn then made it two in the same over when he cleaned up Virat Kohli with a superb delivery that jagged back in sharply to rattle his timber.
Bresnan then reduced the home side to 80 for 3 in the next over when he had Rahane caught behind for 42. Raina was lucky to survive a dropped chance when he was put down by Swann in the 22nd over. He and Manoj Tiwary added 43 for the fourth wicket before the latter departed in the 28th over, caught behind off Meaker.
Raina looked in good touch as he showed glimpses of class with free flowing drives and flicks through midwicket. He and Dhoni added 39 runs for the fifth wicket before a brilliant piece of fielding, a direct hit at the bowler's end from square leg, from Ravi Bopara cut short the left-hander's innings to 38.
The home side scored just 28 from the batting power play, but Dhoni then took on Swann, smashing him for two sixes in the 43rd over, scoring 16 runs off the over, taking the total to 203/5 in the 43rd over.
Samit Patel struck two blows at a crucial time, removing Jadeja and Ashwin from his two overs. Dhoni then brought up his half-century from 52 balls via a cracking cover drive off Meaker. He and Praveen Kumar went berserk scoring 44 runs from just 3.3 overs and Dhoni finished off the innings in style, scoring 18 runs off the last over to post a challenging target of 271. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 75 off 69 balls with three hits to the fence and four over it.
In reply, England got off to a solid start as the opening pair of Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter added 129 runs for the first wicket from 21 overs. Kieswetter reached his half-century first off 49 balls, while Cook followed suit with a half-century off 51 deliveries.
Just when it seemed everything was going right for the visitors, Aaron Varun struck, cleaning up Cook for 60. Jadeja then ran riot as he picked up three wickets off his three overs, at first cleaning up Kieswetter for 63, then having Trott caught at slip and finally removing Bairstow, caught at backward point.
Ashwin squeezed one in between when he had Ian Bell caught behind for 2. With England reeling at 141/5, Raina added insult to injury when he cleaned up Bopara for 4 in the 31st over, Tiwary joined the party with the wicket of Bresnan. Jadeja clinched his fourth by having Samit Patel caught behind for 18 and Ashwin wrapped up the innings, removing the last two batsmen to seal an emphatic 95 run victory and complete a 5-0 whitewash.
Ravindra Jadeja was named the man of the match for his brilliant bowling performance of 4/33.
MS Dhoni was named the man of the series for his consistent batting performance, scoring 212 runs in the series.
Scores: India: 271/8, England 176/10
Man of the Match: Ravindra Jadeja
Man of the Series: MS Dhoni
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