Kolkata: Indian spinners sparked an England collapse after skipper MS Dhoni's fireworks with the bat to hand the visitors a 5-0 bashing by winning the fifth ODI by 95 runs here at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
Chasing a stiff target of 272, England's opening pair of Craig Kieswetter and Alastair Cook gave them a solid 129-run foundation, but the visitors lost their way with the departure of these two, as their 10 wickets fell within 47 runs.
After Varun Aaron broke the 129-run opening stand between Kieswetter (63) and skipper Cook (60), India's spin attack of Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Suresh Raina and Manoj Tiwary took nine wickets between them to dismiss the visitors for 176.
Jadeja was the destroyer-in-chief, taking 4/33, and Ashwin bagged 3/28. The whitewash made partial amends for the disastrous tour of England in July-September, when India were routed 4-0 in the Test series to lose the world number one ranking and were blanked 3-0 in the one-dayers.
Kieswetter and Cook got England off to a flying start as the former attacked the Indian bowlers right from the start and raced to 63 off 64 balls with the help of nine boundaries and a six. Aaron provided India the much-needed first breakthrough when he dismissed Cook for 60 in his second over.
In the very next over, Kieswetter's quickfire innings came to an end when he was trapped in front of the wickets by Jadeja.
Ashwin then struck to dismiss Ian Bell for two, to help India gain some momentum. Jadeja then removed the two Jonathan Trott and Jonny Bairstow in eight balls to step into the lower order. Ravi Bopara was bowled by Suresh Raina round his wickets and Tim Bresnan holed out against part-time spinner Manoj Tiwary.
Ashwin then picked up Stuart Meaker and Steven Finn in the 37th over to complete the stunning whitewash.
Earlier, Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni smashed an unbeaten 75 off 69 balls to power India to 271-8 after the hosts were sent in to bat by the England captain.
The right-hander's last seven ODI knocks - all of them against Alastair Cook's men - now read 69, 78 not out, 50 not out, 87 not out, 35 not out, 15 not out and 75 not out.
Cook changed tactics at the toss by bowling first and proceedings were going according to plan for the visitors as India limped to 162 for five after 36.5 overs. Ajinkya Rahane (42) and Gautam Gambhir (38) had fired at the top of the knock, but the middle overs were a stifled affair as Steven Finn struck twice in one over.
Raina - grassed by Graeme Swann in the slips on a mere single - dug in for a tidy 38, while Jadeja's stocks at seven in the order continued to rise with a steady 21.
It was Dhoni, however, who stole the show entirely. Kick-starting his latest knock with a couple of big sixes off Swann, the wicketkeeper-batsman then tucked into Stuart Meaker and Patel for distance.
The rivals will return to the Eden Gardens on Saturday for a one-off Twenty20 international before England return home.
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