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England thrash India at The Oval to secure 3-1 victory in Test series England thrash India at the Oval to secure 3-1 victory in Test series
(about 1 hour later)
England inflicted a second consecutive three-day defeat on India to seal the Investec Test series 3-1 at The Oval. On a late summer Kennington afternoon, India suffered their final humiliation of a month that had already seemed indignity heaped on indignity. Faced with the task of making 338 in their second innings even for England to bat again, they had capitulated with almost relentless predictability by 4.20pm, dismissed for 94, leaving England winners by an innings and 244 runs. Only at Lord’s, in 1974, when the margin was an innings and 285, have England delivered a bigger beating to India, for whom this represents their third heaviest innings defeat.
The home seamers hunted as a pack, as they had two days ago here, to hustle hapless India out for only 94 in 29.2 overs overs and win by an innings and 244 runs - their second-highest margin of victory against them. Thus, England, seemingly on the ropes and in crisis only a few weeks ago, after they themselves had been dismissed ignominiously at Lord’s, finish the summer having won the last three matches by 266 runs at Ageas Bowl; an innings and 54 at Old Trafford; and now this. It also means that England retain the Pataudi Trophy that they won under Andrew Strauss and retained under Alastair Cook in India.
After Joe Root (149 not out) completed his fifth Test century, captain Alastair Cook unleashed James Anderson, Stuart Broad et al - with a 338-run lead on the board. The England seam bowlers were irresistible, aided by the substantial movement, both in the air and from the pitch of a kind that has made batting a trial throughout this match, and indeed the last four matches, and the technical and mental inadequacies of the Indian batting. The chief beneficiary was Chris Jordan, who polished things off with clinical precision, taking 4 for 18, with Jimmy Anderson taking 2 for 16, and Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes taking a wicket apiece for 22 and 24 runs respectively. There were two run outs.
But it was Chris Jordan who cashed in a career-best four for 18 as India’s embarrassingly swift descent was all over by tea. Anderson stands only four wickets short of overtaking Ian Botham’s England record of 383 wickets, but must wait at least until Antigua in April for the opportunity to do so in what would be his 100th Test match. In taking 25 wickets at 20.6 runs apiece, Anderson was the obvious choice for Duncan Fletcher, the India coach, to nominate as England’s man of the series.
Anderson, moving ever closer to Ian Botham’s all-time England record Test wicket-taking tally of 383, began the rout when he numbered Murali Vijay as his 379th victim - pinning the opener lbw on the back foot. The man of the match award went to Joe Root, whose unbeaten 149 in batting conditions that became ever more demanding as the pitch gained pace over three days, helped propel England to a formidable 486 that left India with no chance, beyond the weather, of saving the game. There was indeed some rain, but it arrived shortly before lunch and only delayed play by 20 minutes after the interval while the covers were mopped up.
The tourists, for whom so little has gone right since the second Test at Lord’s, then suffered another comical indignity when out-of-form Gautam Gambhir contrived to run himself out just as a sudden downpour was setting in to make his misjudgement the last act before lunch. Since their first innings at Lord’s, India’s scores have been progressively lower: 347; then 330 and 178 at Ageas Bowl; 152 and 161 at Old Trafford; and now 148 and 94. In their last five innings, then, they have lost 50 wickets for 733 runs in 247 overs, which means one wicket every five overs. This is not just poor batting, it is calamitous.
The left-hander pushed Anderson to midwicket, set off and was sent back by Cheteshwar Pujara - but not before Chris Woakes’ direct hit broke the stumps. Now, for India, comes the soul searching, a challenge now to see quite how much this defeat, in this form of cricket, impacts on the perception of the team in India. As with England it is a young side, largely anyway, who came up against a similarly developing team but, crucially,in familiar conditions. They were just not up to the job.
In half an hour of batting, India had encountered another hapless false start to be nine for two - and when they returned after a near two-hour rest, things simply went from bad to worse for them as England went for the quick kill. Now though the teams shortly exchange their Test match whites for their limited-overs colours, and here India might find England in the process of significant redevelopment, as close as they are to February’s World Cup. Would this Test match humiliation be offset, airbrushed away even as almost an irrelevance, by a win in a one-day series as a precursor to their own defence of the World Cup? And how will this affect the position of Fletcher, whose Test match record away from India is abysmal. Can his limited overs record, which includes the Champions Trophy in this country a year ago, sustain him (always assuming he wants it, of course)?
It was already hard to see how they could possibly survive against the moving ball - off the pitch still, and in the air - long enough to stop England winning a third successive Test. England had begun the final day already in a commanding position, with Root approaching his fifth Test match hundred, and with time enough to extend that to one of total dominance. So hard did Root and, after the loss of Jordan, Broad go that 101 runs were scored in 11 overs and three balls it took India to finish off the innings. Whereupon, the bowlers, backed by high quality catching and ground fielding, began the process of working their way through the order.
That was soon much more evident as Anderson followed a series of inswingers at Pujara with the perfect follow-up, holding its line and taking the edge behind. Anderson, inevitably, made the first incision, a brilliant outer-outer-inner three card trick to have Murali Vijay lbw, and Woakes the second incision, running out the hapless Gautam Gambhir just as the rain began to fall. After the restart, it was relentless pressure, with five sometimes six men close catching on the offside. Anderson found another special delivery for Cheteshwar Pujara, and Gary Ballance made an outstanding left-handed diving catch at third slip to pluck an edge from Ajinkya Rahane that would not have carried to second slip.
Broad then had Ajinkya Rahane edging low to be brilliantly caught by Gary Ballance, diving to his left one-handed at third slip. The main stumbling blocks that remained now were Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. But Woakes found a little extra bounce to have the India captain caught at short leg from inside edge and thigh pad, and Jordan, brought into the attack to replace Broad, immediately had Kohli, aiming to clip the ball through midwicket, well caught by Cook at first slip.
Woakes was soon in the wickets column too, seeing off Mahendra Singh Dhoni for an unaccustomed duck via an inside edge to short leg. It was processional thereafter as Ravichandran Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the latter India’s man of the series, were caught by Ian Bell at second slip, Ashwin after Ballance had parried into the air a sharp head high chance. When Varun Aaron was run out, with brilliant work from Jos Buttler in gathering Moeen Ali’s throw it left Ishant Sharma as the last bastion. Jordan’s bouncer, fended into the air and caught by Moeen running in from short extra cover, made short work of it.
Jordan produced an especially good outswinger to end Virat Kohli’s hugely disappointing series with an edge to slip, and then Ballance juggled another catch up from third to second as Ravi Ashwin went to the same bowler.
India were in fast and terminal decline, for the second time here and the fourth in the past two weeks.
Jordan settled the only outstanding question, whether Anderson would have to wait to reach Botham, when he found another edge and England accepted more slip-catching practice from Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Root had begun the day with 92 to his name, and wasted no time moving to three figures as the hosts rushed along to 486 all out.
Root soon pushed Ishant Sharma through midwicket for three to bring up his hundred and England’s 400 with the same shot.
His century had taken 135 balls, but the most notable statistic was that his acceleration after a necessarily patient start brought him his second 50 in only 42 deliveries.
Jordan fell to the very next ball from Ishant (four for 96), following one that held its line to end an eighth-wicket stand of 82.
Broad then joined in the fun, in his first innings since Varun Aaron broke his nose with a bouncer last week, and dished out a little belated retaliation - standing tall for three trademark off-side boundaries in the same over.
India’s misadventures were cruelly underlined when Ishant bowled Root off an inside edge and pad only to discover - even as the batsman was walking off for 110 - that there would be a reprieve because he had overstepped for a no-ball.
Broad was soon proving, off Ishant at the other end, that he is happy to continue hooking - and counted six when he did so.
Dhoni kept two slips, a gully and short leg in to Broad, even as he threatened the world’s fastest Test 50. Eventually it paid off when he looped a catch into the cordon - albeit off only his left glove, when he had taken it off the bat handle and therefore should not strictly have been given out.
Another 63 had been plundered in just seven overs, but still England wanted more.
So it was only when Anderson went lbw pushing forward to Ashwin (three for 72) that the innings was naturally closed - with plenty of time left, as it turned out, for England to complete the first series success of their new era with seven sessions to spare.