England v India Fourth Test Review

By Zaheer Haque

The Fourth and Final Test of this Series took place at The Kia Oval in South London.

England went into this Test Match with a 3-0 lead and also as World Number One Test team.

England won the toss and chose to bat first and both England openers batted well without too many problems and both remained not out at Lunch.

Rain started during Lunch break and no further play took place throughout the rest of the day.

Friday morning saw both openers fall early and then a Sensational 300 Partnership took place Friday between Ian Bell who batted 3 again and Kevin Pietersen. Kevin Pietersen scored great 175 but Ian Bell surpassed this with his maiden double hundred. This was the best innings Ian Bell has ever played for England and made an extraordinary 235.

Rain disrupted play on Saturday for few hours forcing England to declare early on 591-6.

The way England batted with the sheer aggression of Bell and Pietersen still left so much time in the game to force India to ideally follow on and push for an innings victory. This eventually happened late into Day 5 with only Rahul Dravid putting up any resistance with the Bat with another great century and carried his bat. He was forced to open the innings in both innings as Gautam Gambhir got injured in the field.

India was bowled out for a very poor 300 with surprisingly Amit Mishra putting resistance up making 43 alongside Dravid century.

India began their second innings much better than all previous innings they had played throughout the whole series finishing day four on 118-3.

The first session of day five saw England extraordinary failed to take a wicket as Mishra who came in as night watchman built a good partnership with Tendulkar. They continued this partnership after Lunch to an excellent 144 partnership before Mishra was out for career best 84.

Mishra dismissal caused a horrific collapse including the key wicket of Tendulkar for 91 with India losing last 7 wickets for only 21 runs on still a good batting wicket. This gave England yet another Innings victory. The main instigator of the collapse was Swann who finished with 6 wickets in the innings which he fully deserved for his great bowling.

This win gave England a 4-0 series win and a whitewash of India.

The whole series England were utterly dominant in all three areas of their game and was a complete performance which they will never achieve again in a series.