By IANS,
London : Sachin Tendulkar and Amit Mishra’s brief resistance failed to save the day for India as the visitors lost the fourth and final Test by an innings and eight runs, with England completing a 4-0 series whitewash.
Tendulkar (91) and Mishra (84) gave a ray of hope and the way they batted in the morning session, it looked like India were determined to save the Test. The two added 144 runs for the fourth wicket.
However, their fall within a space of four balls at 262 changed the complexion of the match and the new ball did the rest.
Following on, India folded up for 283 in the second innings on the fifth and final day Monday having been bundled out for 300 in the first outing.
India, who were World No.1 at the start of the series, lost 4-0, conceding not only the NO.1 tag to England, but hurtling down to third place behind South Africa.
On the final day, Graeme Swann spun the ball, both old and new, to good effect and claimed 6/106 for a match figure of nine for 160.
It was a fantastic win for England, whose complete domination with the bat and ball left India much to reflect.
Indian batsmen, save Rahul Dravid, who struck three centuries, failed misreably against the England seam attack comprising James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan.
The bowlers did not fare any better and struggled to hit the right length.
In the morning, Tendulkar and Mishra looked determined to salvage some pride.
But once Swann got the breakthrough, crashing through Mishra’s defence with a straighter one, and with Tendulkar following trapped lbw by Bresnan, India surrendered meekly.
Swann removed Suresh Raina, whose misery of the series ended with a king pair. The England off spinner, who was getting good turn from the wicket, again dismissed Raina lbw for his fourth wicket of the innings and seventh of the match.
Anderson and Broad then made the new ball swing as they had throughout the series. Dhoni threw his bat at a wide James Anderson delivery to be caught at slips. RP Singh gave his wicket to Broad.
Swann then dismissed Gautam Gambhir and S. Sreesanth to complete the rout.
Earlier, India began in right earnest to save the Test and Tendulkar and Mishra remained unseparated at lunch with India reaching 216/3.
Tendulkar, who has been gone through a lean patch in the series, looked set for his 100th international ton. His overnight companion Mishra (57) showed the resolve that was not seen in the Indian players so far in the series.
Resuming at 129/3, Tendulkar and Mishra played cautiously and were not hesitant in dispatching the bad balls to the fence.
Mishra looked compact with his technique and showed the straight face of the bat whenever required.
Tendulkar, who has struggled against the moving ball in the series, survived two dropped chances once when Alastair Cook dropped a bat-pad chance and another when Matt Prior dropped him.
The master batsman was sublime with his strokes and hit 11 fours in his 172-ball stay.
Mishra, who provided good support to Dravid in the first innings, struck seven fours.