Cook dismayed as cluster of lost wickets sees India whitewash England

Chasing India’s total of 271-8, England were well on course in the fifth and final ODI but collapsed embarrassingly from 129 without loss to 176 all out.

“We were in with a shout at 120-odd for nought and just got blown away at the end. It was very disappointing,” said Cook, whose side lost the match by 95 runs.

“We know you can lose wickets in clusters and we seem to have lost 10 there in a cluster.

“We set up the game beautifully to go on and win that but credit to the way they bowled and we played a couple of poor shots. It was a bit of a disappointing end and a bit of a common theme.”

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made 75 not out with some vital late hitting to boost his side’s total and was not dismissed throughout the series.

Cook added: “Credit to MS, at the end he hits it very well,. He’s a very hard person to bowl at and he single-handedly got them up to 270, which was probably gettable the way we started.

“But when you lose 10 for 50 you’re not going to win anything.

“Only four of us have played a one-day series out here and it’s great for the youngsters to get the experience. It will show where they need to improve and we all need to improve as a side.

“We got thoroughly beaten out here but there are quite a few positives. I thought Steven Finn throughout the series has been excellent.

“It’s always hard when you lose 5-0 but there are always positives.”

Dhoni said: “It was a very ugly looking wicket and one ball can swing or keep low. It was very difficult to score on so we were fortunate to score 270. 240 or 245 was in our mind and then wait for the wicket to spin.

“I want to stay to the end (of the innings) and whatever is in my area I look to hit it over the boundary. It’s important to see which bowlers are left and who you can target. After that it’s about who can bear the pressure well. I love to stay to the end and I’ve been supported by the other batsmen.”

England coach Andy Flower admitted England’s whitewash was “a bad setback”.

But he added: “Not everything is doom and gloom, our results have shown that in the last couple of years.

“But this is a bad setback for us and we have to go back to the drawing board in terms of playing one-day international cricket in the sub-continent.

“We need time to reflect. I thought we’d learned lessons from three years ago and put in place training drills which would equip our batsmen to deal better with the conditions out here, but I’m obviously wrong in that regard. Our skills weren’t good enough and our handling of the pressure wasn’t good enough.”

Match report: Page 23.