Jonathan Trott hit 98 not out as England piled up 298-4 in a must-win one-day international against world champions India in Mohali on Thursday.
Samit Patel smashed an unbeaten 70 off 43 balls and Kevin Pietersen scored 64 as England’s batting finally came good after skipper Alastair Cook won the toss in the day-night game.
The tourists, who were thrashed by 126 runs and eight wickets in the previous two games, need a win to stay afloat in the five-match series.
India’s new look team, without seven players who won the World Cup final against Sri Lanka in April, will chase a target of six runs an over under lights to clinch the series.
Trott and Pietersen, coming together at 53-2, put on 101 for the third wicket on an even-paced pitch ideal for shot-making.
Trott then added 103 for the unbroken fifth with Patel, who hit two sixes and seven fours as England plundered 91 runs in the last 10 overs.
Trott, who was on 94 at the start of the final over from Vinay Kumar, took three runs from the first two deliveries but managed only a single off the fifth to be denied a fourth one-day hundred.
Cook, who fell for zero in the second match, failed once again when he was trapped leg-before by Vinay for three in the fourth over.
Craig Kieswetter made amends for his low scores in the first two matches by pounding two sixes and three boundaries in a quickfire 36 before he was bowled by part-timer Virat Kohli in the 13th over.
Pietersen and Trott battered the Indian bowling till the 29th over when the hosts ended the century partnership through a contentious decision by umpire Sudhir Asnani.
Asnani, standing in an international match for the first time since 1999, declared a stunned Pietersen leg-before even as the tall batsman stretched forward to defend a ball from Ravindra Jadeja.
England managed just 30 runs for the loss of Ravi Bopara’s wicket — bowled by Praveen Kumar for 24 — in the batting power-play between the 36th and 40th overs.
