New Delhi: In an intensely fought series, both the sides fought hard in the middle in the seven match ODI series after India had the Test series in the bag. England after an initial lead of 3-1 after the first four matches, allowed India to come back to level the series at 3-3. However, in the deciding tie at Lord's England cruised to an easy win, lifting the Natwest trophy.
Ian Bell was one of the biggest finds this series for England, scoring 422 runs from 7 matches at an astonishing average of 70.33 with one hundred and two fifties. He was the highest run-getter from both sides by quite a margin, followed by the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar who also had a good time with the bat in the series with 374 runs to his name, though the Mumbai batsman got dismissed in the ninties twice and was also a victim to some iffy decisions from the umpires. For India after Anil Kumble was the lone centurian in the Test matches, none of the batsmen could reach the three figure mark in the seven One-Dayers. For England, along with Bell (first ODI), Cook (first ODI) and Shah (sixth ODI) had centuries to their names.
But the real difference which stands out between the two sides is the fire-power in the bowling department. While most of the Indian bowlers had an average series, the English bowlers had a major contribution in the series win for the home side.
James Anderson was the leader of the pack with 14 wickets in the series at an average of 22.57. Andrew Flintoff in his four matches, took 10 wickets with the only 5-wicket haul in the series. For India, RP Singh and Ajit Agarkar had the seven wickets to their names of five matches.
ODI Series Averages: England VS India
England Batting
| Batsman | Mts | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 100 | 50 |
| IR Bell | 7 | 7 | 1 | 422 | 126* | 70.33 | 91.73 | 1 | 2 |
| PD Collingwood | 7 | 6 | 2 | 274 | 91* | 68.50 | 97.85 | 0 | 2 |
| KP Pietersen | 7 | 7 | 2 | 209 | 71* | 41.80 | 76.27 | 0 | 2 |
| AN Cook | 6 | 6 | 0 | 182 | 102 | 30.33 | 75.51 | 1 | 0 |
| OA Shah | 5 | 4 | 1 | 149 | 107* | 49.66 | 89.75 | 1 | 0 |
| MJ Prior | 7 | 7 | 0 | 142 | 46 | 20.28 | 88.19 | 0 | 0 |
| AD Mascarenhas | 4 | 2 | 1 | 88 | 52 | 88.00 | 162.96 | 0 | 1 |
| SCJ Broad | 7 | 4 | 2 | 85 | 45* | 42.50 | 76.57 | 0 | 0 |
| RS Bopara | 5 | 4 | 1 | 81 | 43* | 27.00 | 63.77 | 0 | 0 |
| LJ Wright | 2 | 2 | 0 | 50 | 50 | 25.00 | 121.95 | 0 | 1 |
| CT Tremlett | 2 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 19* | - | 190.00 | 0 | 0 |
| J Lewis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 17.00 | 113.33 | 0 | 0 |
| A Flintoff | 4 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 9 | 7.00 | 93.33 | 0 | 0 |
| JM Andersen | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1* | - | 100.00 | 0 | 0 |
| MS Panesar | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | 0 | 0 |
India batting
| Batsman | Mts | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 100 | 50 |
| SR Tendulkar | 7 | 7 | 0 | 374 | 99 | 53.42 | 85.77 | 0 | 4 |
| Yuvraj Singh | 7 | 7 | 0 | 249 | 72 | 35.57 | 73.45 | 0 | 3 |
| SC Ganguly | 7 | 7 | 0 | 175 | 50 | 25.00 | 72.31 | 0 | 1 |
| R Dravid | 7 | 7 | 1 | 223 | 92* | 37.16 | 97.37 | 0 | 2 |
| MS Dhoni | 7 | 7 | 0 | 175 | 50 | 25.00 | 72.31 | 0 | 1 |
| G Gambhir | 4 | 4 | 0 | 113 | 51 | 28.25 | 71.97 | 0 | 1 |
| RV Uthappa | 2 | 2 | 1 | 69 | 47* | 69.00 | 109.52 | 0 | 0 |
| Z Khan | 6 | 6 | 1 | 62 | 20 | 12.40 | 79.48 | 0 | 0 |
| KD Karthik | 5 | 5 | 2 | 51 | 44* | 17.00 | 68.91 | 0 | 0 |
| RR Powar | 6 | 5 | 1 | 23 | 10 | 5.75 | 50.00 | 0 | 0 |
| AB Agarkar | 5 | 4 | 0 | 19 | 11 | 4.75 | 50.00 | 0 | 0 |
| Piyush Chawla | 7 | 5 | 2 | 17 | 13* | 5.66 | 56.66 | 0 | 0 |
| RP Singh | 5 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 12* | 6.50 | 48.14 | 0 | 0 |
| MM Patel | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | 33.33 | 0 | 0 |
| Rohit Sharma | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 |
England Bowling
| Bowler | Mts | Overs | Mdns | Runs | Wkts | Best | Avg | Econ | SR |
| JM Anderson | 7 | 65.5 | 10 | 316 | 14 | 4-23 | 22.57 | 4.80 | 28.2 |
| A Flintoff | 4 | 35.3 | 3 | 144 | 10 | 5-56 | 14.40 | 4.05 | 21.3 |
| SCJ Broad | 7 | 65.4 | 4 | 340 | 9 | 4-51 | 37.77 | 5.17 | 43.7 |
| AD Mascarenhas | 4 | 34 | 3 | 137 | 6 | 3-23 | 22.83 | 4.02 | 34.0 |
| MS Panesar | 6 | 56 | 2 | 268 | 6 | 1-28 | 44.66 | 4.78 | 56.0 |
| PD Collingwood | 7 | 46 | 1 | 251 | 3 | 2-45 | 83.66 | 5.45 | 92.0 |
| CT Tremlett | 2 | 17 | 0 | 130 | 2 | 2-57 | 65.00 | 7.64 | 51.0 |
| KP Pietersen | 7 | 1.5 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 1-6 | 13.00 | 7.09 | 11.0 |
| OA Shah | 5 | 4 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 1-19 | 19.00 | 4.75 | 24.0 |
| J Lewis | 1 | 10 | 1 | 63 | 1 | 1-63 | 63.00 | 6.30 | 60.0 |
| LJ Wright | 2 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 0 | - | - | 5.50 | - |
| RS Bopara | 5 | 7.1 | 0 | 46 | 0 | - | - | 6.41 | - |
India Bowling
| RP Singh | 5 | 42 | 1 | 222 | 7 | 3-55 | 31.71 | 5-28 | 36.0 |
| AB Agarkar | 5 | 44 | 2 | 313 | 7 | 4-60 | 44.71 | 7.11 | 37.7 |
| RR Powar | 6 | 51.2 | 0 | 235 | 6 | 2-45 | 39.16 | 4.57 | 51.3 |
| Piyush Chawla | 7 | 60 | 2 | 314 | 6 | 3-60 | 52.33 | 5.23 | 60.0 |
| MM Patel | 2 | 13 | 0 | 107 | 4 | 3-70 | 26.75 | 8.23 | 19.5 |
| Z Khan | 6 | 56 | 3 | 270 | 4 | 1-43 | 67.50 | 4.82 | 84.0 |
| SC Ganguly | 7 | 25 | 0 | 120 | 2 | 2-26 | 60.00 | 4.80 | 75.0 |
| Yuvraj Singh | 7 | 21 | 0 | 146 | 1 | 1-39 | 146.00 | 6.95 | 126.0 |
| SR Tendulkar | 7 | 11 | 0 | 80 | 0 | - | - | 7.27 | - |