India beat England by 19 runs in 4th one-dayer, clinch Hero Honda Cup

Set with a victory target of 198 runs in 22 overs (as per the Duckwoth-Lewis method), England looked threatening at one point when Owais Shah and Andrew Flintoff were on the crease but after their dismissal, all hopes of winning went up in smoke.

After losing the toss, India batted first and made 166 runs in 22 overs, with Virendra Sehwag scoring a quickfire 69 runs off 57 balls (9 4s, 3 6s). Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh chipped in with valuables 40 (off 37 balls) and 25 (off 11 balls) helping India pile up its total to 166 for 4 in 22 overs. Sachin Tendulkar, who was recalled to the ODI side after a long gap of 8 months, could not shine with the bat, scoring just 11 runs before being bowled by Stuart Broad in the 8th over.

Rain forced play to halt twice when India were batting - first time in the 14th over when they were at 82 for 1 and the second time in the 17th over when they were at 106 for 1.

When England came out to bat, as per the Duckworth-Lewis method, they were set with a revised victory target of 198 runs in 22 overs. The Pommies had initial hiccups with openers Ravinder Bopara (1) and Ian Bell (12) falling cheaply and captain Kevin Pietersen (5) falling suit, before Owais Shah (72 runs off 48 balls, 9 4s, 3 6s) and Andrew Flintoff (41 runs off 30 balls, 3 4s, 1 6s) steadied the English innings. The two piled on 82 runs in 48 balls to leave their side requiring 67 off the final six overs.

However, after Owais Shah fell in the 17th over, a victim to Indian pacer Zaheer Khan's swinging delivery, Flintoff apparently gave up hope, following his teammate back to the pavilion in the 18th over, thanks to a wonderful yorker by pacer Ishant Sharma. The English threat was over at that moment.

Paul Collingwood (22 runs off 14 balls) and Samit Patel (11 runs off 9 balls) batted valiantly and tried to help England reach the victory target, but it was too little, too late. England finished their innings 178 runs for 8 wickets off 22 overs.

Indian pacers Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel picked up two wickets each while Harbhajan Singh picked up one.

For England, Graeme Swann picked up two wickets while Stuart Broad and Samit Patel picked up one each.

Sehwag, adjudged Man of the Match, joined the elite 6000-club on Sunday, when he hit the 36th run. He is the sixth Indian to do so after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Mohammed Azharuddin and Yuvraj Singh. His fifty against England is his 32nd fifity of his ODI career.

"I think all the three fast bowlers did a wonderful job in shaping up the victory for us. Zaheer has been quite consistent in our recent wins while Ishant and Munaf bowled really well. Their bowling figures say a lot as Zaheer gave away just 20 runs while Munaf and Ishant conceded 21 and 42 runs respectively while taking two wickets apiece," Sehwag told reporters after the match.

"I think the two stoppages due to rain helped us somewhat though we did not have any plans for that. We were confident that if the Duckworth-Lewis Method came into the picture we would have an advantage as we had scored around 106 runs for the loss of one wicket before the second interruption," he added.

Speaking about his explosive innings, Sehwag said it was like playing Twenty20s. "It was a good track to bat on. In the IPL, I scored some 40 runs off 17 balls at the same ground. So I backed myself here and knew if I can see through Flintoff's overs, I can play any other bowler," he said.

"Overall, it was good team effort," India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said. "Zaheer bowled really well with Ishant (Sharma) and Munaf (Patel)."

"England is a tough side, but we knew that even if we played up to 70-80 percent of our potential we would defeat them easily. Our confidence is high after beating Australia," he said.

England captain Kevin Pietersen said his team was beaten "by an Indian side, which is playing fantastic cricket."

"Owais batted fantastically today and Freddie helped him out with a good contribution. But we were done in by Virender Sehwag," Pietersen said, adding that England would try to stay competitive in the remaining three games despite the series being lost.

"It is not nice to lose 4-0 but at the end of the day we lost to India, who is playing fantastic cricket, with a lot of freedom, without any fear and with a lot of confidence after beating Australia convincingly (with a 2-0 test series victory)," Pietersen said.

"We are still going to make sure that the rest of the competition is very, very 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. I'm disappointed but we've just got to take this on the chin and bounce back."

"England would give its best to improve the performance and what better way to do it than in India, where cricket is a religion," he added.

With Sunday's victory (incidentally, India's 700th ODI), India is up 4-0 against England and has wrapped up the 7-match ODI series. With the remaining 3 matches being regulatory in nature, India is expected to field its reserve strength and experiment with its batting and bowling.

"You will see a few changes in the side in the next three matches. Some of the people who have not played in the series so far will play but we still look to win games," Dhoni said, adding, "Three more matches to come and we want to win those games."

The fifth one-dayer will be played at Cuttack on Wednesday.