India lose, but Jadeja, Ashwin bright spots

New Delhi: The nightmare for India is showing no signs of getting over. After four Tests, one Twenty20 and three ODIs, India still haven't won a single international match on this England tour.

It is hard to search for positives after such disheartening results, but the third one-dayer at The Oval on Friday - which the reigning World Champions narrowly lost by three wickets - could have been much worse for India were it not for Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and MS Dhoni. In fact, despite the loss, Jadeja won his third man-of-the-match award.
The signs were ominous from the start. Put in to bat, India lost their first four wickets with only 25 runs on the board - their worst start against England. They were 34 for 4 at Rose Bowl in 2007.
At that stage, a score of 200-plus looked near impossible. However, Jadeja's 78 saved India's blushes. It is his highest ODI score, surpassing an unbeaten 61 against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo.
Jadeja came together with skipper Dhoni (69) to take India to a respectable 234-7. Their 112-run stand is India's third best for this wicket against England. The 121-run stand between Yuvraj and Kaif at Lord's in 2002 remains the best.
Jadeja was involved in another crucial partnership as well. The 59-run stand between R Ashwin and Jadeja is the highest seventh-wicket stand for India against England. The previous best was 52 between Brijesh Patel and Abid Ali at Leeds in 1974.
R Ashwin's strike-rate of 189.47 (36 not out off 19 balls) is the highest for an Indian scoring at least 25 runs at number 8 against England. Kapil Dev held the previous record with a strike-rate of 162.16 (60 off 37 balls) at Leeds in 1982.
Interestingly, there have been only two better performances than Ashwin's in this game for India against any opponent. Both have come from Ajit Agarkar's bat against Zimbabwe.
The two partnerships helped India score 51-1 in the batting powerplay - the most they have scored against England during this period. They had made 41 for 2 at Rajkot in 2008.
Ashwin (3-40) and Jadeja (2-42) later contributed with the ball as well, but their efforts were not enough to prevent England's victory. It was the first instance of a side batting second winning a day-night encounter at the Kennington Oval. All the four previous day-night games were won by side batting first.
James Anderson, who picked up four wickets, had more cause for joy. The fast bowler was playing his 150th ODI, and became only the fourth England player after Paul Collingwood (197), Alec Stewart (170) and Darren Gough (159) to do so.