Yuvraj's beach party

If you go by the ICC rankings, only 12 points separate India in third place from England in seventh. The one-sided nature of this romp, however, suggests that the gulf could be significantly wider by the time two exhausted teams troop off the field in Indore. Put simply, England aren't a very good one-day side, while India have shown signs over the past six months of being one of only two or three teams that might give Ricky Ponting's Australians a game at the next World Cup. This was their 15th win in 19 outings since Rahul Dravid was given the freedom to chart his own course, and each of them against sides ranked in the top six at the time.

Until they eased up under the hot afternoon sun with England six down, and the game in the bag, this was a performance that encompassed all the qualities that have made this a formidable one-day outfit. To reach 294 on a sluggish pitch where strokeplay was never easy was an exceptional effort, and Irfan Pathan then built on that with an opening spell that was as clever as it was incisive.

Dravid's steady and accomplished 46 suggested that a diligent grind would be the order of the day, but someone forgot to mention that to Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, whose breezy 142-run partnership spanned just 20.1 overs. Raina was in superb touch yet again, playing some gorgeous shots through the onside, but even he was eclipsed by Yuvraj, who rediscovered the sublime form that fetched him 344 runs and Man-of-the-Series honours in Pakistan.

On a pitch where other batsmen often failed to work the ball off the square, Yuvraj's fluency was astonishing. He struck the ball with finesse and power, and invariably with a straight bat. When he did go across the line, with the pick-up over midwicket or the flat sweep to the square-leg fence, the contact was so crisp that it made an absolute mockery of the conditions. When he plays like this, touched by greatness, you begin to understand why people have become so infuriated with him over the course of a stop-start five-year career.

To make a 49-ball half-century on this surface took some doing, but the manner in which he then scorched to 100 in a further 24 balls was just frightening. There were two fours and a huge six over midwicket in the 45th over bowled by Sajid Mahmood, and when Liam Plunkett came on, he smacked one nearly as high as the lights while clearing the fence. The last time India had played here, VVS Laxman had illuminated a narrow defeat to Australia with a splendid hundred. This was even better, and this time it was no consolation either.

Raina appears to be another with a glorious future ahead of him. After piloting the chase with such aplomb in Faridabad, he was a tremendous foil for Yuvraj, unflappable and busy when not stepping down and hitting nonchalantly over the infield. He then capped another fine outing with a beautifully judged catch that deprived Paul Collingwood of a richly deserved century.

Pathan's slower balls and off-cutters had triggered another top-order slump, and Collingwood was a lone ray of light in what's rapidly becoming a tunnel of darkness for England. Surrounded by several who appear clueless as to how to construct a one-day innings, Collingwood did just that, running the singles and rotating the strike while also hitting cleanly over the inner ring. The fact that India were on auto-pilot by then helped his cause, but the defiance was welcome in a match that was otherwise a complete rout. Andrew Flintoff's hand-on-helmet dismay after his mistimed heave across the line encapsulated this game, and if England aren't careful, they might be swept away.