Eventually, it turned out to be a no-contest in spite of England doing its bit to bounce back more than once.
Riding on Virat Kohli's unbeaten 112 and his record unfinished double-century stand with Gautam Gambhir, India scored a resounding eight-wicket win with 80 deliveries to spare to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
When the Indian openers, Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane, returned to the dressing room with just 29 on the board, the Englishmen were obviously entertaining hopes of defending 237 on what is traditionally considered a pitch that does not encourage free-flowing stroke-play. But the two men who grew up as cricketers at the Ferozeshah Kotla obviously know more.
Making light of a modest run-chase, Kohli and Gambhir set the pace for each other on their home ground and turned the visitors into hapless bystanders. Together, they held centrestage for 29.5 overs, and raised a record unfinished 209 to enthral the sparsely-filled stands in the second contest of the five-match series on Monday.
Shaky start
The right-left combination made the English attack look grossly inadequate and sprayed the ball in all directions. Gambhir may have started shakily by getting a couple of lucky boundaries off the edge of his bat, but once he got into the rhythm there was no reprieve for the visiting side. If Gambhir was happy to delectably play square off the wicket, Kohli preferred to play in the ‘V'.
As the scoring picked up pace, Kohli overtook Gambhir in reaching the half-century and later pressed on the accelerator to reach his seventh century in One-Day Internationals.
He also reached the 1000-run mark this year to be third on the list of run-getters in ODIs this year, behind Jonathan Trott and Shane Watson.
Kohli, in fact, had a complete day. He bowled five overs for just 18 runs, took two catches, scored a strokeful century studded with 16 boundaries.
He was lucky to be around to put the finishing touches to the chase after being dropped soon after reaching the three-figure mark. He deservedly walked away with the Man-of-the-Match award!
Gambhir, who smashed 10 boundaries in his unbeaten 84, played his part to perfection. Earlier, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Bopara, Samit Patel and Jonny Bairstow raised visions of setting India a fairly challenging total. However, each of these batsmen perished, exposing the English tail. Overall, it was a below-par batting performance that made the Indian bowling look better.
If it was spin that did the damage to England's chase at Hyderabad, pace and swing combined today to keep the visiting team in check. Vinay Kumar's career-best four-wicket haul and Umesh Yadav's two crucial strikes ensured that the start given by Praveen Kumar did not go in vain.
After Praveen and Vinay sent back openers Alastair Cook and Craig Kieswetter with wicket-maidens, Trott was the first English batsman to show that neither the pitch nor the bowlers held any terrors before he played a wee bit casually to an away going delivery from Vinay.
Thereafter, Pietersen and Ravi Bopara raised 73 runs for the fourth wicket.
Samit Patel and Jonathan Bairstow raised 86 runs for the sixth wicket but it proved too little in the end.
Scoreboard
England: A. Cook c Jadeja b Praveen 0 (4b), C. Kieswetter c Kohli b Vinay 0 (5b), J. Trott c Dhoni b Vinay 34 (37b, 7x4), K. Pietersen c Dhoni b Yadav 46 (55b, 3x4, 2x6), R. Bopara lbw b Ashwin 36 (50b, 4x4), J. Bairstow c Kohli b Jadeja 35 (49b, 3x4), S. Patel lbw b Yadav 42 (53b, 2x4, 2x6), T. Bresnan c Raina b Vinay 12 (13b, 1x4), G. Swann b Vinay 7 (7b, 1x4), S. Finn (not out) 6 (13b), J. Dernbach (run out) 3 (4b); Extras (lb-5, w-11): 16; Total (in 48.2 overs): 237.
Power Plays: Overs 1-10: 48/3; Bowling (16-20): 27/0; Batting (36-40): 36/0.
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Cook), 2-0 (Kieswetter), 3-48 (Trott), 4-121 (Bopara), 5-121 (Pietersen), 6-207 (Patel), 7-211 (Bairstow), 8-227 (Swann), 9-229 (Bresnan).
India bowling: Praveen 9-1-40-1, Vinay 9-1-30-4, Kohli 5-0-18-0, Yadav 8.2-0-50-2, Ashwin 10-0-56-1, Jadeja 7-0-38-1.
India: Parthiv c Cook b Bresnan 12 (17b, 2x4), A. Rehane c Dernbach b Bresnan 14 (15b, 1x4, 1x6), G. Gambhir (not out) 84 (90b, 10x4), V. Kohli (not out) 112 (98b, 16x4), Extras (lb-3, w-13) 16; Total (for two in 36.4 overs) 238.
Power Plays: Overs 1-10: 53/2; Bowling (18-22): 32/0; Batting (36 onwards): 13/0
Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Parthiv), 2-29 (Rehane).
England bowling: Bresnan 7-1-41-2, Finn 9-0-50-0, Dernbach 5.4-0-41-0, Swann 8-0-52-0, Bopara 3-0-21-0, Samit 2-0-17-0, Pietersen 2-0-13-0.
Man of the Match: Virat Kohli.

Watch Highlights