England slumped to its third successive defeat in the one-day series after India successfully negotiated fading light to secure its triumph.
Chasing England's total of 240 in a match reduced to 49 overs after a 45-minute delay for early morning smog, India reached 5-198 after 40 when the light forced the end of contest and the hosts were ahead of the required total on the Duckworth-Lewis method.
It secured a 16-run victory despite protests from England captain Kevin Pietersen and the win ensures India needs only one more success from the final four matches to secure the series.
England was facing a major task anyway, after being dismissed for a lowly 240 despite winning the toss and deciding to bat first.
Its re-jigged batting line-up failed to exploit the conditions.
Ravi Bopara was chosen to open alongside Ian Bell and it was a tactic which worked initially as they forged a 79-run opening stand.
But after being well placed for a competitive total on 1-80 after 15 overs, England lost four key wickets to India's spinners.
The new opening partnership struggled against the new ball, but opened up after the eighth over with Bell finally hitting successive boundaries off Munaf Patel.
Their stand was finally broken in the 15th over with Bell, who had raced to 46 off 47 balls, edging Munaf behind as he attempted to open the face of the bat to guide down to third man.
His demise brought captain Kevin Pietersen to the crease as one of the many changes to the line-up, moving himself to his old position and allowing Owais Shah to move back to the middle order.
It was not a change which succeeded with Pietersen falling five overs later attempting to hit Harbhajan Singh over the top only to pick out Zaheer Khan at long off.
Harbhajan, who finished with impressive figures of 3-31 from his 10 overs, struck again in his next over by luring Paul Collingwood forward out of his crease and beating him with the doosra to allow MS Dhoni to complete the stumping.
Bopara had at least adapted to his new position as opener and progressed to 60, his highest one-day international score, before becoming England's fourth wicket to fall in 12 overs when he was also stumped pushing forward to Yuvraj Singh's left-arm spin.
Flintoff also fell to spin, walking across his stumps to fall lbw to Yusuf Pathan's second ball, and without him England added only 21 runs in their four batting powerplay overs and, needing to force the pace without him, it lost five wickets in the final six overs.
All-rounder Flintoff was also at the heart of England's attempt to secure an unlikely victory, claiming a wicket in the first over of each of his three spells to keep India chasing the required Duckworth-Lewis target at the end of each over.
But the batting powerplay, reduced to four overs per side, proved the difference with India hammering 38 to ensure it had a healthy lead over the D/L target and only two overs later the match ended in bad light with England complaining about its fate.
India v England, Third One-Day International, Kanpur
England innings (49 overs maximum)
R Bopara st Dhoni b Yuvraj Singh 60 (82)
I Bell c Dhoni b Patel 46 (47)
K Pietersen c Khan b Harbhajan Singh 13 (16)
P Collingwood st Dhoni b Harbhajan Singh 1 (11)
A Flintoff lbw b Pathan 26 (46)
O Shah c Khan b Harbhajan Singh 40 (42)
S Patel c Raina b I Sharma 26 (29)
M Prior b I Sharma 5 (13)
G Swann not out 5 (5)
S Broad c Dhoni b Khan 0 (3)
J Anderson b Patel 1 (3)
Extras 17 (3lb, 9w, 5nb)
Total: 240 (all out; 48.4 overs)
FoW: 1-79 (Bell, 14.3 ov), 2-102 (Pietersen, 19.1 ov), 3-106 (Collingwood, 21.2 ov), 4-133 (Bopara, 28.5 ov), 5-167 (Flintoff, 36.2 ov), 6-203 (Shah, 43.4 ov), 7-231 (Patel, 46.4 ov), 8-231 (Prior, 46.5 ov), 9-235 (Broad, 47.5 ov), 10-240 (Anderson, 48.4 ov)
Bowling:
Z Khan 10 - 0 - 45 - 1
M Patel 6.4 - 0 - 36 - 2
I Sharma 9 - 0 - 60 - 2
Yuvraj Singh 10 - 0 - 54 - 1
Harbhajan Singh 10 - 2- 31 - 3
Y Pathan 2 - 0 - 7 - 1
V Sehwag 1 - 0 - 4 - 0
India innings
G Gambhir c Broad b Flintoff 14 (17)
V Sehwag c Collingwood b Flintoff 68 (76)
S Raina b Broad 1 (8)
R Sharma c Prior b Swann 28 (41)
Yuvraj Singh c Broad b Flintoff 38 (31)
MS Dhoni not out 29 (51)
Y Pathan not out 12 (16)
Extras 8 (5lb, 3w)
Total: 198 (5 wickest; 40 overs)
FoW: 1-31 (Gambhir, 6.5 ov), 2-34 (Raina, 9.1 ov), 3-107 (RG Sharma, 22.4 ov), 4-125 (Sehwag, 25.2 ov), 5-177 (Yuvraj Singh, 35.6 ov)
Bowling:
J Anderson 6 - 0 - 47 - 0
S Broad 9 - 2 - 36 - 1
A Flintoff 9 - 0 - 31 - 3
G Swann 10 - 0 - 47 - 1
S Patel 3 - 0 - 18 - 0
K Pietersen 3 - 0 - 14 - 0
India won by 16 runs (D/L method)