Test series are usually long, but this one has been particularly agonizing for India. They've had to deal with losing key players to injury at crucial times, collective losses of form, their bowling attack coming up woefully short, and surrendering the #1 Test ranking with massive, and increasingly depressing, defeats. Coming into the last day of the last Test, though, they stood a good chance of playing the day out for a draw and leaving with some modicum of pride.

 

 

 

Even before play started, India were dealt a blow with the news that Virender Sehwag and Ishant Sharma were ruled out of the ODI series. The focus, though, was on Sachin Tendulkar - looking at 100 centuries and 15,000 Test runs - and Amit Mishra, looking to banish his nightmarish bowling performance with a decent turn as nightwatchman. Tendulkar started positively, taking James Anderson for early boundaries and bringing up his half-century and India's 150 shortly afterwards.

 

Amit Mishra got into the act, growing in confidence as he started to find boundaries off the England bowlers. The two brought India's deficit below 100 and saw the beleaguered visitors past 200. Tendulkar was dropped by Alastair Cook at short leg off Graeme Swann when on 70*, to go with his reprieve when England didn't appeal for a stumping yesterday. But he, and India, survived, with Mishra bringing up a vital half-century as lunch was taken at 216/3.

 

With India seeing out the session for the loss of no wicket, and two set batsmen at the crease (one of them being the greatest batsman in the history of the game), realistic thoughts of a draw began to bloom. Much as England hunted for a wicket to break the partnership, Mishra and Tendulkar countered everything thrown their way. Swann had to endure more frustration when Tendulkar was dropped off his bowling again, this time by Matt Prior on 85*. Two balls later, Tendulkar padded up to a delivery that spun back sharply and should have been out LBW, but Simon Taufel ruled in his favor. No DRS for LBW decisions, and Tendulkar lived on as he edged closer to the elusive century of centuries.

 

Swann finally had some justice when he bowled Amit Mishra, who made a gutsy and valiant 84. England finally broke that 144-run partnership, and despite all the hard work of getting India to 262/4, the middle and lower order, low on runs and lower on confidence, was in the firing line.

 

Tim Bresnan came on the next over and had Tendulkar caught in front for 91. Suspend, for a second, the cries of agony that Sachin Tendulkar was 9 measly runs away from his 100th international century, and think instead of India slipping from a solid counterattack of 262/3 to be vulnerable and exposed at 262/5. Suresh Raina batted 29 balls for his duck in the first innings; his second innings duck took him 13 balls, and the fact that the slight inside edge onto his pads didn't save him from an LBW decision won't help. Stuart Broad nabbed Mahendra Singh Dhoni and RP Singh in the same over to push India to the brink at 269/8, and Graeme Swann had the honor of claiming the last two wickets - bringing his innings haul to six - as India lost their last seven wickets for 21 runs to be bowled out for 283. England win the game by an innings and 8 runs, the series 4-0, and are the undisputed #1 Test team in the world.

 

Now we can return our attention to Sachin Tendulkar. Despite missing out on the century and the 15,000 Test runs this innings, he's scored 33,086 international runs, a full 6,720 ahead of Ricky Ponting at second place.

 

But the most telling statistic is that England averaged 59.76 runs per wicket for this series, and lost 47 batsmen overall. India managed merely 25.55, and were bowled out every single time they were at bat - a total of 80 wickets.

 

And so, England win 4-0, sealing their title of best Test team in the world with another innings victory. India's worst series in living memory is over. Now we see what the World Cup winners are made of.

 

Day 5: England 591/6

beat India 283 all out (Sachin Tendulkar 91, Graeme Swann 38-6-106-6) by an innings at 8 runs

England win the 4-game series 4-0

Man of the Match: Ian Bell

Men of the Series: Stuart Broad and Rahul Dravid