Dinesh Mongia struck a fine 88 as India 'A' beat England 'A' by two wickets in the second one-dayer to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match cricket series at the Chinnaswamy stadium at Bangalore on Tuesday.
After bowling out the visitors for 228, India, aided by a 84 run partnership between openers Mongia and Gautam Gambhir (37) and another valuable 105-run partnership for the second wicket involving Mongia and Sridharan Sriram (50), achieved the target losing eight wickets in 41.1 overs.
England, who won the toss and elected to bat, were dismissed for 228 in 46 overs with opener Kevin Pietersen cracking a superb century (131 runs, 12x4, 3x6).
Barring Pietersen, none of the England batsmen could stay long enough at the crease as the side lost wickets at regular intervals.
Munaf Patel was the most successful bowler for the hosts, scalping three wickets, while Ramesh Powar claimed two wickets.
India 'A', who began their chase on a promising note, came under some pressure when the middle and late order failed to contribute much with the bat.
Sajid Mahmood took four Indian wickets.
India 'A' had defeated England in the first match on Monday. The last match of the series will be played at Chennai tomorrow.
Scoreboard:
England 'A':
Kevin Pietersen c J P Yadav b S S Paul 131
Mathew Prior c Mithun Manhas b Munaf Patel 4
Michael Lumb c Ajay Ratra b Ramesh Powar 24
Ed Smith c Dinesh Mongia b Sreekumar Nair 8
Bilal Shafayat run out 10
Graham Napier run out 4
James Tredwell run out 1
Graham Wagg c S Sriram b Ramesh Powar 29
Sajid Mahamood b Munaf Patel 1
Simon Francis b Munaf Patel 4
Simon Jones not out 3
Extras (LB-7, WD-2) 9
Total (all out in 46 overs) 228
Fall of wickets: 1/19, 2/89, 3/114, 4/128, 5/149, 6/152, 7/209, 8/217, 9/217.
Bowling: Munaf Patel 9-1-42-3; Shib Shankar Paul 4-0-37-1; Jai Prakash Yadav 3-0-19-0, Dinesh Mongia 6-0-28-0; Ramesh Powar 7-0-32-2, Sreekumar Nair 7-0-37-1; Sairaj Bahutule 10-1-26-0.
India 'A':
Dinesh Mongia st Mathew Prior b Kevin Pietersen 88
Gautam Gambhir lbw b Simon Francis 37
Sridharan Sriram run out 50
Mithun Minhas b Simon Jones 4
Jai Prakash Yadav lbw b Sajid Mahmood 7
Sreekumar Nair c Mathew Prior b Sajid Mahmood 7
Ajay Ratra b Sajid Mahmood 0
Sairaj Bahutule not out 10
Ramesh Powar c Ed Smith b Sajid Mohmood 0
Shib Shankar Paul not out 1
Extras ( b-4, lb-6, nb-6, wd-9) 25
Total (for 8 wkts, 41.1 overs) 229
Fall of wickets: 1/84, 2/189, 3/189, 4/193, 5/212, 6/212, 7/226, 8/226
Bowling: Sajid Mahmood 9.1-0-51-4; Graham Napier 7-1-51-0; Simon Jones 10-0-45-1; Simon Francis 5-0-21-1; Graham Wagg 3-1-17-0; James Tredwell 5-1-29-0; Kevin Pietersen 2-0-5-1.