By IANS,
Birmingham : India surrendered their World No.1 Test status to England as they suffered a humiliating innings and 242 runs defeat with a day to spare in the third cricket Test at Edgbaston here Saturday.
With the crushing victory, England took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the four-match series and grabbed the Test crown for the first time, ending India’s 20-month reign at the top. England have been in fine form since beating Australia Down Under in Ashes series last year.
It was Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s first Test series loss as captain.
England were in firm control of the match right from the first day after bowling India out for 224 runs in the first innings. Alastair Cook, batting for a marathon 13 hours for his career-best 294, and Eoin Morgan (104) batted India out of the match as England declared their first innings at 710 for seven on the third day.
James Anderson (4-85), who got a match haul of six wickets, bowled a brilliant spell to bowl India out for 244 in the second innings an hour after lunch.
India, resuming at overnight 35/1 having lost Virender Sehwag to a king pair Friday evening, again made a disastrous start as Anderson picked up four for 35 in the morning session to reduce the visitors to 116 for six at lunch.
Besides Sachin Tendulkar’s pleasing 40, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (74 not out) and Praveen Kumar (40) provided some entertainment to the packed crowd at Edgbaston with lusty hitting for their 75-run stand for the eighth wicket but the fight back came too late.
Anderson wrecked the top order in a six-over spell, removing Gautam Gambhir (14) and Rahul Dravid in the first two overs of the day. Anderson struck with the first ball that was pitched on middle and leg and swung away sharply, prompting Gambhir to edge to second slip Graeme Swann.
In the next over, Anderson got rid of Dravid but replays showed that the former India captain did not edge and the bat kissed his shoe laces. For reasons known to him, Dravid did not appeal for a review.
A lovely outswinger from Anderson ended V.V.S.Laxman’s (2) brief stay at the crease, caught behind by Prior while Suresh Raina (10) was trapped leg-before by Graeme Swann after hitting the spinner for two well timed fours in the same over.
Tendulkar stroked his way, hitting eight fours but was run out in an unfortunate way after a straight drive from Dhoni kissed Swann’s hand to the stumps.
After lunch, Dhoni and Mishra (22) put on 41 runs for the seventh wicket, before the latter was out to Graeme Swann. Praveen Kumar then entertained the crowd with a breezy 40 off 18 balls hitting five fours and three sixes and punishing Swann for some lusty blows. Stuart Broad (2-28) ended his stay with a short ball.