The possibility of a series whitewash looms large on the Indian women's cricket team after another pathetic batting display that saw England [Images] hand them a fourth straight defeat.

After the lone Twenty20 [Images] match between the teams was washed out at Taunton, the fourth ODI in Arundel was truncated to a 23-overs-a-side affair, which saw the visitors hurtling to a seven-wicket defeat.

Put into bat, Mithali Raj and her teammates crawled to 90 for 7, and despite Jhulan Goswami's miserly spell, Claire Taylor's unbeaten 56 saw the hosts overwhelm the target with five balls to spare and the loss of just three wickets.

Opener Sulakshana Naik (28) and Jaya Sharma (13) gave India a steady, if not rollicking, start to put up 27 runs before Isa Guha dismissed Jaya to draw first blood.

England's left-arm spinner Holly Colvin (3/17) then took over and ran through the Indian top order, dismissing, among others, the lone in-form Indian, skipper Raj, who was stumped at 10.

To make it worse, Devika Palshikar (4), Asha Rawat (10) and Priyanka Roy (7) panicked and perished in quest of non-existent runs and India's innings eventually halted at 90 for 7.

In reply, England did not have a flying start either, as Jhulan Goswami dismissed opener Sarah Taylor for a duck. She maintained an impeccable line and length in her tidy spell of five overs that yielded just eight runs.

Sunetra Paranjpe then dismissed Caroline Atkins (6) to reduce the hosts to 14 for 2, but the seasoned Claire Taylor was hardly perturbed. She kept going till her team was home.

Her unbeaten, match-winning knock came off 68 balls and included three fours.

The Indians now move to Hove for the final ODI on Tuesday, hoping to avoid a whitewash in the five-match series.

Brief scores:

India: 90 for 7 in 23 overs (S Naik 28, J Sharma 13; H Colvin 3-17)

England: 93 for 3 in 22.1 overs (C Taylor 56 not out, C Edwards 17).