The Indians failed to turn up for the contest. The heavy rains over the last 24 hours and the thick cloud cover this morning seemed to have lulled them into thinking that the match would probably never get underway. The relatively early start to the match – thanks to the excellent work by the ground staff – almost seemed to have taken them by surprise. The first few overs set the pattern for the day. Ashish Nehra had been the model of consistency with the new ball in the earlier matches, keeping an excellent control over line and length. But here, his second ball veered down the leg side and his next delivery bisected the slips for four wides. The pitch was doing a bit, and whenever Nehra and Zaheer Khan got it right, the batsmen were bothered. Unfortunately for India, it just didn't happen often enough.

Nowhere was the sloppiness more in evidence than in the 18 wides and six no-balls given away. By contrast, England's bowlers gave away a mere seven wides. John Wright must surely have made note of that statistic – it's an area India will have to tighten up before Saturday's big match.

Once England had the early momentum going their way, India were always likely to struggle, especially as the weather kept clearing up and Andy Flintoff kept biffing them a long way.

If the bowling was disappointing, then the batting was even more so. England's batsmen had shown in their rain-curtailed game against Sri Lanka at Headingley that an asking rate of more than seven runs an over could be achieved, but India were never in the hunt. India's all-win record in this tournament, and the splendid consistency achieved by the middle-order, has masked their inadequacy at the top of the order. In the five matches so far, the top three batsmen have struggled – Sourav Ganguly has aggregated 80 runs, Virender Sehwag 145 and Dinesh Mongia 70, while VVS Laxman managed 14 batting at No. 3 today. The middle-order solidity had saved India the blushes so far, but clearly the top-order need to spruce up their act.

It's been particularly disappointing to see Ganguly struggle to get among the runs. His familiarity with English conditions should have made him a key batsman, but only in the first match did he look the part with a fluent 43. In his last two matches, he's tried to hit his way out of the slump, but that's only made him look desperate and ungainly. VVS Laxman deserved a look-in, but a 32-over slam-bang game wasn't the ideal opportunity for a player who hadn't played for a few weeks. Rahul Dravid's presence at No. 5 was sorely missed. But more surprisingly, his replacement Ajay Ratra did little behind the stumps to suggest that India were taking a gamble by opting for Dravid as wicketkeeper. Ratra missed a regulation stumping and wasn't particularly impressive with his glovework.

After India's four outstanding performances, a letdown wasn't entirely unexpected, especially in a rain-reduced match. The last time India had put up such a commanding performance in a triangular series – in Zimbabwe in 2001 – they had gone on to lose the finals after thrashing West Indies and hosts Zimbabwe in all four league matches. This defeat might just be the wake-up call that the Indians need to focus better on Saturday. And if that happens, not many Indians will complain about today's loss.

S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com in India.

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