Sunday 14 August 2011

England defeat India to become world number 1 Test side

England swept aside India in front of a rocking Edgbaston crowd to knock India of the top of the Test rankings and become number 1 themselves.

Skipper MS Dhoni and Preveen Kumar delayed the inevitable with a high class and entertaining 75 partnership but not before Jimmy Anderson had set England on their way to victory by removing Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman inside the first hour as he again showed why he is one of the worlds greatest swing bowlers.

Despite the resistance of Dhoni (74 not out) and Kumar (40 off 18 balls) Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan (combined figures of 3-47) mopped up the tail  to skittle the tourists for 224. This is now the 6th time in the series India have failed to score over 300 runs against England.

The victory by an innings and 242 runs gives England an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series and ensured that they became the worlds number 1 Test side in empathic style.

Andrew Strauss and his team united in a joyous huddle when the final wicket went down and continued to show the good sportsmanship that has ran through the whole series by shaking hands with the entire India team as they left the field.

However the celebrations will be kept short as the two teams head to the Oval for Thursdays fourth and final Test when England will be aiming on inflicting a series whitewash on India, ideally in the same ruthless fashion as the rest of the series.

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