India cruise to 7-wicket win, lead series 1-0

New Delhi: India completed the formalities of wrapping up the second Test against England at Trent Bridge in Nottingham to take an unbeatable 1-0 lead in the three-match series on Tuesday.

The winning runs came as a result of a bye that went for four, but that did not dampen the mood in the Indian dressing room.

Needing just 73 to win, India made it home before lunch on the final day despite losing three wickets in the face of some incisive bowling by pacemen Chris Tremlett and James Anderson.

Wasim Jaffer (22) was the first to go, caught by Kevin Pietersen off Tremlett with the scoreboard reading 47-1. Tremlett struck again when a rising delivery kissed Dinesh Karthik’s bat and wicketkeeper Matthew Prior took an easy catch.

Though Tremlett, playing only in his second Test, bowled with a lot of fire, the target was too small to trouble the strong Indian batting line-up.

Sachin Tendulkar too fell to Tremlett, caught by Alastair Cook after making just one run.

India had won the toss and put England in to bat but the hosts were bowled out for only 198 runs in their first innings with left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan and leggie Anil Kumble being the chief tormentors, picking up four and three wickets respectively.

The English bowlers failed to repeat the feat of the Indians with the visitors putting up 481 runs in the first innings to take a big lead of 283 runs. India’s total was a result of the good show put up by the top and the middle order with five batsmen going past the 50-run mark with Tendulkar (91) being the top scorer.

England once again failed to put up a fight in the second innings though their skipper Michael Vaughan led from the front scoring 124 runs, his 17th Test century. He got support from Paul Collingwood (63) but after their 112-run partnership was broken by Zaheer, wickets tumbled in a heap and the hosts were finally bowled for 355 giving India a target of just 73 runs.

The only other batsman to come up with a substantial score was Andrew Strauss who scored 55.

India began the chase on the fourth day itself and were 10 for no loss at stumps with Kathik and Jaffer the two not out batsmen having scored six and three runs each respectively.

India’s domination in the match was built around a fine bowling performance by pace spearhead Zaheer Khan who ended the match with nine wickets including a five-wicket haul in England’s second innings.

The first match of the series at Lord’s ended in a draw with rains playing spoilsport on the last day.