This was one of India's better performances on this tour but it still wasn't enough to prevent England from winning yet another match. When India was 25 for 4 in the 11th over and 58 for 5 after 19 overs, it seemed the match would be over in a hurry, but Dhoni and Jadeja showed a lot of heart and spirit with their 112-run partnership and then Ashwin's cameo at the end took India to a respectable 234 for 7. Anderson did all the initial damage for England but was hit around in the death overs. Bresnan and Swann were excellent and economical with the ball.
The biggest positive for India from this match was the impressive performance of Jadeja and he was deservedly named Man of the Match and will now hope to continue his good run going forward.
England have had the edge over India with their bowling and lower-order batting through the series, and it was no different at The Oval in the third ODI. While England's new ball bowlers were economical and got the early breakthroughs, India's medium-pace bowlers were unable to do so as England got off to a flier in their run chase. They were also unable to put any pressure on the English batsmen. The Indian spin trio of Jadeja, Ashwin and Raina did an excellent job. Dhoni could probably have brought in the spinners a bit earlier than he did towards the end of the match.
Kieswetter (51) got England's run chase off to a flier and when he was out, the score was 87 for 2 in 17 overs. A rain delay for an hour meant that England's target was revised to 218 from 43 overs and though the hosts slipped to 133 for 5 in the 28th over, Bresnan and Bopara added 60 runs in 67 balls for the sixth wicket to get their team back on track. And, though both of them weren't in the middle at the end, Stuart Broad and Swann ensured England would ease home with three wickets and seven wickets to spare.
The points of interest for the remainder of the tour is if England can inflict a series whitewash and whether India can register at least one win on this tour.
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