England inflicted another humiliating defeat upon India as they won the fifth and final Test at The Oval by an innings and 244 runs on Sunday to complete a 3-1 series win.
It was England’s second victory inside three days in as many matches after they thrashed India by an innings and 54 runs to win the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
India collapsed to 94 all out, an even worse effort than their meager first-innings 148, after Joe Root’s unbeaten 149 powered England to 486 earlier on Sunday.
Photo: AFP
Victory completed a remarkable turnaround for England, who had been 1-0 down after the first two Tests of the series.
It was only the second time a team has won the final three Tests after being behind after two.
“It’s probably the culmination of putting India under pressure,” England captain Alastair Cook told BBC Radio’s Test Match Special. “In the last three games, everyone has stood up. When we had the chance to nail India, we nailed them.”
“We are on the road to recovery. We haven’t felt like this for a long time. We have to enjoy it and hope it’s the start of a long road back,” added Cook, whose side suffered a 5-0 thrashing in Australia before losing 1-0 at home to Sri Lanka prior to the India series.
Dejected India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has now led his country to three successive Test series defeats by England, was left to reflect on a run of increasingly low totals culminating with Sunday’s worst effort of the series.
“I think today’s batting was reflective of a batting order that has lost a lot of confidence over a period of time,” he said.
England paceman James Anderson was named man of the series after taking 25 wickets at 20.6 apiece.
Before rain forced an early lunch on Sunday, India slumped to 9-2, with Murali Vijay LBW to an Anderson inswinger and fellow opener Gautam Gambhir run out by a Chris Woakes’ direct hit as he went for a nonexistent single.
When play resumed, India saw Cheteshwar Pujara (11) caught behind off Anderson.
Ajinkya Rahane (4) then nicked Stuart Broad and third slip Gary Ballance, diving across Ian Bell at second slip, held a brilliant one-handed catch low to his left.
Dhoni had played a lone hand in making 82 in the tourists’ first innings, but he fell for a duck, edging paceman Woakes onto his pad and giving a simple catch to Sam Robson at short-leg.
England’s cause was helped when Virat Kohli, aiming leg-side, was caught in the slips by Cook off Chris Jordan for 20.
Jordan then dismissed Ravichandran Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the aid of slip catches during a spell of 4-17 in 19 deliveries that culminated with the dismissal of last man Ishant Sharma to complete England’s victory.
Only Kohli and Stuart Binny (25 not out) got to 20 in the innings.
England had gone 10 Tests without a win when they suffered a first-Test defeat by India at Lord’s.
However, from the moment Cook was dropped on 15, before making 95 in what turned out to be a 266-run win in the third Test at Southampton, their luck changed.
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