Pietersen holds England together
England's attempt to post their first competitive total of their one-day series was undermined by the loss of two wickets in five balls in the fifth match against India on Wednesday.
The tourists had set the platform for a significant score with captain Kevin Pietersen teaming up with Paul Collingwood in an 89-run stand after losing two wickets inside the first 10 overs.
But Collingwood and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff fell in successive overs as England stumbled to 158 for four after 31 overs having been put into bat at the Barabati Stadium.
Former captain Collingwood, without a half-century in the series, had contributed 40 useful runs to England's third wicket stand when he advanced down the wicket to Harbhajan Singh and was superbly caught at long-on by Zaheer Khan.
Flintoff followed in the next over for a duck when he drove at a full-length delivery from seamer Ishant Sharma and was caught at slip by Sachin Tendulkar.
Until those two setbacks, England had engineered an impressive recovery after their new opening partnership failed to provide the impetus in the first 10 overs of powerplay with Alastair Cook replacing Ian Bell to partner Ravi Bopara at the top of the order.
Bopara was getting frustrated at his scoring rate and gave a sharp chance to Virender Sehwag at short extra cover on 22 when he drove Zaheer off the front foot.
Bopara failed to exploit his reprieve and with India captain MS Dhoni restricting his ability to score through extra cover with two close-in fielders, he attempted to hit a square drive but picked out Yuvraj Singh at backward point.
England's experienced third wicket pair combined superbly, expertly rotating the strike during the middle overs against Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, to help Pietersen bring up his half-century off 59 balls.
Just as England hoped they would press on and guide them past 250 for the first time in the series, India struck twice to leave them relying on Pietersen and Owais Shah to propel them to a major total.
