India Women 182 for 4 (Amrita 78) beat England Women 180 for 6 (Thompson 65, Atkins 53) by 6 wickets To lose one wicket to a run-out is unfortunate; to lose two looks like carelessness. Today England's Women lost four, as their chances of a consolation victory in the last game of the five-match series were dashed in seven overs of madness. What would Lady Bracknell have made of it all?

England's captain Claire Connor won the toss, elected to bat, and watched as her openers, Caroline Atkins and Arran Thompson, once again began well. They put on 134 to go with their world-record 200 in the one-off Test and the 89 they shared in the previous one-dayer. But they have obviously been reading from the Geoffrey Boycott book of running between the wickets: both were run out in the previous game and both were run out again today, Thompson for 65, Atkins for 53. The other problem was that the stand ate up 38.5 overs.

In the late rush for runs, a score of 153 for 2 became 166 for 4 as Jacqueline Hawker and Jane Cassar, England's Nos 3 and 4, also succumbed to the Kamikaze urge. Less than an over later England were 168 for 6, as Connor and Sarah Clarke became the first two batsmen not to fall on their own swords; good of them to give the bowlers a chance. But the final score was a familiar tale: England's innings resembled a long trudge to the top of a helterskelter followed by a dizzying descent and a bumpy landing at the bottom: 180 for 6 was the final outcome, which was England's highest total of the series.

India also started strongly, with Anju Jain and Pratapsinh Amrita putting on 117 for the first wicket. But unlike earlier in the day there was no collapse and, despite tight bowling from Claire Taylor (1 for 17 in 8 overs) and Dawn Holden (1 for 27 in 10), India's middle order took them over the finishing line with four overs to spare.

The result concludes a miserable 5-0 series defeat for England. But Connor believes that the "fantastic" team spirit that has developed in adversity will stand England in good stead in this summer's series against India and New Zealand.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd