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Dhoni’s Team Crushed; Impressive England Take the Top Honour

Uzair Rizvi,  BeyondHeadlines

 A 21-month long reign comes to an end on the verge of Independence eve for team India. Well what could be the worst gift for any Indian than to see his team surrendering the 1st spot to the English, who surrendered the country back to the Indians 64 years ago.

As England crushed team India in the third test at Edgbaston by an innings and 242 runs to take an unassailable lead 3-0 in the four match series.

In yet another clinical performance by the English seamers, Indian batsmen just continued with their horror run and perished without any fight allowing the host to win another test series at home.

Courtesy: AP

England’s pace battery James Anderson took 4-85 as India were dismissed for 244 in the second innings.

Team India again failed to post beyond the mark of 300 for the sixth consecutive time. Poor batting has been the root cause for their destruction in this tour and it once again proved a menace for the visitors.

Resuming from the overnight score of 35-1 after having lost Sehwag for his second consecutive duck the previous day.Gambhir (14) poked a wide delivery for an outside edge to the slip cordon.

Dravid (18) and Laxman (2) perished soon without troubling the scorers.
Dravid was unlucky to be given out as he walked off after being given out caught behind. The batsman consulted Tendulkar and before deciding not to go for a review. Whereas the replays clearly showed that the ball did not touch the bat, the sound was of the bat touching his shoelace.

Graeme Swann, who had a quiet series, dismissed Raina (10) with a slider that caught him plumb in front of the wicket.

Master Blaster Tendulkar (40) looked at his best with some marvelous drives, but was dismissed in the cruelest manner when he was run-out backing up at the non-striker’s end.

The post-lunch session gave some cheers to the Indians as skipper Dhoni and Praveen Kumar took the fight to the England bowlers, especially Kumar who smashed every delivery and scored an 18-ball 40.

Amit Mishra made a fighting 22 before faltering to Swann, soon the tail followed him leaving Dhoni stuck at one end with 74 not out.

Broad, Swann picked up two wickets each as Bresnan claimed the last and his only wicket in the innings to led his team to an emphatic victory.

Earlier, England piled up a mammoth 710/7(declared) against the India’s first innings score of 224, where Bresnan and Broad shared four wickets apiece.

England Opening batsman Alistair Cook was named man of the match for his career best score of 294 runs.

It was the 15th worst innings defeat in test history and Dhoni’s first series loss as captain.

Dhoni congratulated England for their achievement and looked worried about their fielding. Adding to it he said that “being no.1 is not important, it’s about being consistent.”
Strauss expressed his joy on attaining this status.”We have worked very hard and the guys have put a lot of hard graft to get on top.”

It is the first time England have occupied the pole position after the creation of test rankings table in 2003.

Now, both the teams head back to London, where the final test starts on Friday at the Oval.
 

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