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England rout India to claim top Test ranking

13th August, 2011
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13th August, 2011
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England routed India by an innings and 242 runs in the third Test at Edgbaston on Saturday to claim India’s crown as the world’s No.1 side.

England’s bowlers ripped through India on day four, dismissing them for 244, with James Anderson taking 4-85 as the home side secured an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the four-Test series.

“We’ve been pretty clinical,” England captain Strauss said.

“I’m very proud for myself and for Andy (Flower, England’s coach) and all his staff but ultimately it’s the players who’ve got to take the plaudits.”

An eighth-wicket stand of 75 between India’s top scorer Mahendra Singh Dhoni (74 not out) and Praveen Kumar (40) delayed England’s coronation, but Tim Bresnan wrapped up the victory when he had Sreesanth caught by Kevin Pietersen at gully.

“It was a classic example of being outplayed at the top level,” India’s captain Dhoni said.

“It doesn’t hurt to lose the No.1 ranking – it hurts to lose each and every game we play. We play throughout the year and every time we lose it hurts.”

The tourists began on 1-35 and failed to add a run before Gautam Gambhir was out.

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Having generated significant turn on Friday evening, Swann bowled the first over, a maiden.

Anderson then removed Gambhir with the seventh ball of the morning, drawing an edge that flew straight to Swann at second slip.

Sachin Tendulkar received his second standing ovation of the Test from the Edgbaston crowd but he was lucky to survive the rest of the over.

Rahul Dravid was next to fall, caught behind without adding to his overnight score of 18.

Dravid ran off the field moments before his dismissal, apparently needing to answer a call of nature, and after sprinting back to the crease he lasted just two balls before he was caught behind off an Anderson outswinger.

Dravid walked without asking for a referral, although the hotspot camera – maligned for its unreliability during this series – showed no contact and other replays suggested his bat had brushed his bootlaces rather than the ball.

VVS Laxman lasted 21 balls before he was caught behind off an unplayable delivery from Anderson for 2 and Suresh Raina was then dropped by Strauss off Swann.

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Raina showed fleeting aggression for 10, but was lbw to Swann in the 29th over.

Raina was reluctant to leave the field and he appeared to ask umpire Steve Davis for a review, even though India vetoed use of the Decision Review System for lbw decisions for this series.

The batsman only departed after a discussion with Tendulkar, whose subsequent dismissal for 40 was desperately unlucky.

Dhoni drove solidly against Swann, but the bowler cleverly diverted the ball onto the stumps at Tendulkar’s end, running him out – after a television review – by millimeters.

Amit Mishra’s aggression proved his undoing in the third over of the afternoon session as he tried to drive Swann and was caught by a diving Stuart Broad at mid off for 22.

Praveen Kumar sliced his first ball for four, gloved another just over Swann and then decided to go out with a flourish, smashing Swann for a four and two sixes off successive balls.

That saved India from the ignominy of its worst ever test defeat – by an innings and 336 runs against West Indies in 1958 – and enlived the crowd, but he eventually fell for 40 to Broad, caught by Ravi Bopara at mid-off.

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Ishant Sharma was lbw to Broad for a duck and the victory was sealed when Bresnan drew Sreesanth into an edge that flew straight to Pietersen.

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