Draw gives India series win

Today was a day that runs were broken at the Oval. India won their first Test series in England since 1986, whilst England were beaten on home soil for the first time since the 2001 Ashes. The day belonged to India despite their inability to convert their supremely dominant postition from the earlier days into a victory in this Test. Instead, England’s batsmen, led by Kevin Pietersen were allowed to play out a draw.

England resumed this morning on 56-0, the almost impossible task of another 444 runs to gather on the final day to win ahead of them along with the far more realistic task of batting out 90 overs for a draw. The English openers had looked comfortable the previous evening, but Alistair Cook looked less secure in the first over of the day, when Sreesanth struck him on the pad with the first delivery and then beat his bat a couple off balls later.

Cook survived, however, and with Andrew Strauss saw off Sreesanth and Khan’s first spells of the day. The introduction of RP Singh brought a breakthrough, though. Strauss, who’s suffered a torrid 2007, had only managed to add 9 runs to his overnight score of 23 in the 11 overs of play in the day, and his frustration surfaced as he faced Singh’s fourth ball. Playing away from his body off his back foot at a ball swinging away from him, Strauss edged to VVS Laxman to give the Indians their first wicket.

Cook soon followed for 43. The Indians have worked Cook over on and around his pads all summer, and the leg-spinner Anil Kumble pursued a similar line when bowling to Cook. Cook attempted to glance the ball into the legside and duly presented Laxman with his second catch of the day at backward short leg.

Kevin Pietersen came to the crease with England at 86-2 and in trouble, but with captain Michael Vaughan, Pietersen put on 66 for the third wicket, and more importantly, absorbed overs and time. It was midway through the afternoon session when Sreesanth, bowling the best he had all tour, induced an edge to remove Vaughan for 42.

Pietersen was undeterred, however. He and his new partner Paul Collingwood (40), put on 114 for the fourth wicket. Pietersen had cautiously played himself in before accelerating to reach 101, his tenth Test century.

Both Collingwood and Pietersen were removed by Sreesanth with the second new ball to give the Indians a chance of victory, but that opportunity was sniffed out by two differing innings from Ian Bell and Matt Prior. Prior played out 64 balls for just 12 whilst Bell struck an aggressive 67 off 62 before being given lbw sweeping Kumble.

Sidebottom played out the day with Prior to deny India success in thisw match, but the tourists take the deservedly take the series after comprehensively outplaying their hosts.

India 664
Anil Kumble 110*, MS Dhoni 92
James Anderson 4-182, Monty Panesar 2-159

England 345
Ian Bell 63, Paul Collingwood 62
Zaheer Khan 3-32, Anil Kumble 3-94

India 180-6 declared
Sourav Ganguly 57, VVS Laxman 46*
Paul Collingwood 2-24, James Anderson 2-34

England 369-6
Kevin Pietersen 101, Ian Bell 67
Sreesanth 3-53, Anil Kumble 2-123

Match drawn