England suffered their fifth successive defeat despite delivering their best batting display of the one-day series with India cruising to yet another comprehensive victory.

The tourists have been scratching around for answers to halt India's seemingly unstoppable progress towards a series whitewash after emphatic defeats in Rajkot, Indore, Kanpur and Bangalore.

They have tried different batting combinations, used 13 players in five matches and even took the day off from training to try and break the routine and perhaps change their fortunes against India's impressive line-up.

But despite Kevin Pietersen's unbeaten 111 - ending a run of 14 matches without England scoring a one-day international century - guiding the tourists to a competitive 270 for four, India secured their six-wicket victory with 6.2 overs to spare.

It was another desperate blow to England's hopes of at least salvaging some pride having surrendered any chance of challenging for the series by losing the opening four matches.

Having chosen to conduct a team meeting rather than travel to the Barabati Stadium for practice yesterday, England always knew that anything less than an improved performance would invite criticism for their preparation.

Their change of routine worked to a point with England delivering their most competitive score of the series and ending their barren run without a century, which stretched back to when Pietersen scored an unbeaten 110 against New Zealand at Chester-le-Street last June.

Yet even that was not enough to halt another Indian victory with openers Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar's aggressive 136-run partnership spanning 20 overs effectively settling the issue long before Rohit Sharma hit the winning boundary.

England had struggled to hit boundaries throughout their innings on a slow-looking pitch after being put in to bat, with Pietersen the only player able to clear the ropes for six when he launched Harbhajan Singh over long on.

They changed their opening partnership once again, this time recalling Alastair Cook to replace Ian Bell, but England still failed to find the attacking impetus at the top of the order to rival India's strokemakers.

Both Cook and Ravi Bopara fell inside the first 10 overs, leaving Pietersen and former captain Paul Collingwood to try to set a platform which would enable England to set a testing target.

Rotating the strike intelligently, they achieved their objective despite a shaky start from Pietersen - his first scoring shot was a mis-timed pull which flew over wicketkeeper MS Dhoni's head for four - by forging an 89-run partnership.

Just as England set their sights on pushing on to a major total, however, they lost Collingwood when he advanced down the pitch to Harbhajan and was caught at long on and Andrew Flintoff fell in the next over when he edged Ishant Sharma to slip.

Having demanded his side score more centuries, however, Pietersen opted to lead by example and combined with Owais Shah in a highly-effective 112-run partnership which pushed England beyond 250 for the first time in the series.

Pietersen struggled throughout his innings to time his shots with his customary fluency, but battled through to his seventh one-day international century while Shah continued his rich vein of form during the series to hit an unbeaten 66 off 57 balls.

Such was Pietersen's confidence that his side had finally posted a winning total he even spurned a single off the final ball from all-rounder Irfan Pathan before walking off at the interval.

It soon became clear that missed single was to be irrelevant to the eventual outcome with Sehwag once again setting the tone for India's electric start by hitting the fourth ball of the innings from Steve Harmison for four.

That was the start of another stunning innings from Sehwag, who hit 15 fours and a six in his brilliant 91 off 73 balls, and underlined the vast gulf between the playing styles of the two teams.

While England struggled throughout their innings to score at a healthy rate, Sehwag's aggression and Tendulkar's superb touch left Pietersen scrambling for bowling options as they forced one bowling change after another.

Sehwag forced Harmison to be withdrawn when his first four overs conceded 22 and was even more aggressive when Graeme Swann was brought on to bowl, hammering 21 off his first over.

India's dominance was such that when Harmison knocked back Tendulkar's off-stump shortly after he had reached his half-century that promoted Yuvraj Singh to try to finish the match off quickly.

Yuvraj lasted just three overs before giving Bopara a sharp return catch and Sehwag's stunning innings was halted in the next over by a generous lbw decision awarded in Stuart Broad's favour.

But by then India were so far ahead of the rate captain Dhoni and Suresh Raina could afford to bat patiently and still see out the game with plenty of overs to spare.

Swann at least broke a 94-run fourth wicket partnership by earning an lbw against Dhoni, but by then England had even bigger worries with Broad limping off the pitch unable to finish his ninth over because of a sore left hamstring to complete another desperate day for the tourists.

The victory was finally completed with Rohit Sharma driving Bopara through the covers for four with India winning with such ease they still had another eight balls of their batting powerplay to use.