India's domination of England in the ODI series was complete at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday. By wrapping up the final match with a 95-run victory, the home team gave a perfect Deepavali present to the country.

Put in, India scored a challenging 271 for eight and stopped England at 176 in 37 overs. If skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni thrilled everyone with his batting pyrotechnics, the Indian spinners made sure the English was brought down to earth.

Good start

For a while it looked as if England would, after all, stop the Indian team's march towards complete annihilation when its opening pair of Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter produced the most telling association of the series. The 129 runs the two added looked the right launching pad in its quest for the lone victory after being in arrears 0-4.

But it was not to be.

Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and off-break bowler R. Ashwin, bowling in tandem during the five-over Power Play, completely broke England's back picking up four wickets.

Later Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary also joined in stifling the English batsmen after India's new kid on the block, Varun Aaron, gave the breakthrough shattering the wicket of England captain Cook. Then the floodgates opened.

Ian Bell, searching for form and runs, was the next to go having no clue to the one that drifted away and Jonathan Trott guided a Jadeja turner to Virat Kohli in the slips. Jonathan Bairstow was taken at backward point by Ajinkya Rahane off Jadeja and Ravi Bopara was bowled.

A crowd of about 25,000, the lowest turnout for any India match at this historic venue, enjoyed every moment of the English discomfiture. Jadeja and Ashwin picked up four and three wickets respectively to complete the rout.

Significantly, England's 10 wickets fell for just 47 runs!

Earlier, India reached 271 for eight thanks mainly to captain Dhoni's unbeaten 75 off 69 balls. Rahane (42), Gautam Gambhir (38) and Raina (38) also contributed to enable India post a challenging total. Significantly, Dhoni has remained unbeaten in this series.

The opening-wicket partnership of 80 runs between Rahane and Gambhir set the tone for the rest of the innings. The visitors came back strongly in the bowling Power Play between the 16th and the 20th overs to completely dominate play by picking up three wickets conceding only 10 runs.

Useful partnerships

Thereafter, two useful partnerships, for the fourth wicket (43 off 52 balls) between Raina and Manoj Tiwary, coming into the playing XI in place of Parthiv Patel, and for the fifth wicket (39 off 57 balls) between Raina and Dhoni gave India the momentum to go past 200.

India enjoyed its best opening start with Gambhir, opening the innings for the first time in this series, and Rahane playing sensibly. The first five overs yielded just 23 runs as the two were circumspect in their approach.

Tim Bresnan and young Steve Finn opened the bowling and found there was some juice in the pitch. The duo went full throttle to generate good pace. The next five overs produced only 18 runs as India ended the first Power Play at 41 for no loss.

The two Indians laboured to score, but managed to get the occasional boundary to the delight of the crowd. The two brought up India's 50 off 66 balls and went on to put on 80 runs. Gambhir was the first to go playing on to Finn for 38 off 46 balls with the aid of four boundaries. Finn bowled an outstanding second spell in which he had two wickets conceding only 10 runs.

In-form Kohli came in and was surprised by Finn's reverse swing, which cut in to hit the off-stump when he shouldered arms. Rahane too left taken brilliantly by Kieswetter off Bresnan when the batsman played a loose shot outside the off-stump.

India slumped to 80 for three in the space of 10 balls.

Then came the two partnership and finally Dhoni unleashed himself in the end overs. India added 60 runs in the final five overs with Dhoni contributing the maximum.

Scoreboard

India: A. Rahane c Kieswetter b Bresnan 42 (61b, 6x4), G. Gambhir b Finn 38 (46b, 4x4), V. Kohli b Finn 0 (5b), M. Tiwary c Kieswetter b Meaker 24 (30b, 4x4), S. Raina (run out) 38 (46b, 5x4), M.S. Dhoni (not out) 75 (69b, 3x4, 4x6), R. Jadeja c Bell b Samit 21 (21b, 2x4), R. Ashwin c Bairstow b Samit 7 (10b), Praveen c Bairstow b Samit 16 (12b, 1x4, 1x6), Vinay Kumar (not out) 0 (0b); Extras (b-2, w-8) 10; Total (for eight wkts. in 50 overs): 271.

Power Plays: One (1-10) 41/0; Bowling (16-20): 10/3; Batting (36-40): 28/1.

Fall of wickets: 1-80 (Gambhir), 2-80 (Kohli), 3-80 (Rahane), 4-123 (Tiwary), 5-162 (Raina), 6-206 (Jadeja), 7-215 (Ashwin), 8-259 (Praveen).

England bowling: Bresnan 9-0-36-1, Finn 10-2-47-2, Meaker 10-0-65-1, Samit 9-0-57-3, Swann 8-0-45-0, Bopara 4-1-19-0.

England: C. Kieswetter lbw b Jadeja 63 (64b, 9x4, 1x6), A. Cook b Aaron 60 (61b, 8x4), J. Trott c Kohli b Jadeja 5 (10b), I. Bell c Dhoni b Ashwin 2 (6b), R. Bopara b Raina 4 (16b), J. Bairstow c Rahane b Jadeja 2 (7b), S. Patel c Dhoni b Jadeja 18 (33b, 2x4), T. Bresnan c Raina b Tiwary 0 (4b), G. Swann (not out) 10 (11b, 1x4, 1x6) S. Meaker lbw b Ashwin 1 (6b), S. Finn c Dhoni b Ashwin 2 (4b); Extras (b-4, w-5) 9; Total (in 37 overs) 176.

Power plays: One (1-10): 62/0; Bowling (22-26): 10/4; Batting (36-40) 9/3

Fall of wickets: 1-129 (Cook), 2-134 (Kieswetter), 3-137 (Bell), 4-137 (Trott), 5-141 (Bairstow), 6-155 (Bopara), 7-156 (Bresnan), 8-167 (Patel), 9-174 (Meaker).

India bowling: Praveen 5-0-34-0, Vinay Kumar 3-0-21-0, Ashwin 9-0-28-3, Tiwary 5-0-28-1, Jadeja 8-0-33-4, Aaron 3-0-19-1, Raina 4-0-9-1

Man of the Match: R. Jadeja.

Man of the Series: M.S. Dhoni.