Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell shared a record 208-run stand
England’s 28-year wait to win the Test series on Indian soil came to an end on Monday as the fourth and final Test in Nagpur ended on draw.
Thanks to the sagacious centuries by Jonathan Trott (143) and Ian Bell (116 not out), England, who lost in Ahmedabad before winning in Mumbai and Kolkata, earned the draw they needed to secure the series 2-1.
England, who could manage to grab a diminutive four-run first innings lead after India declared their innings for 326-9 in reply of tourists’ 330, were 352-4 when the proceedings were called off with the consent of both sides.
This is England’s first series victory in India since David Gower’s 1984-85 tourists had beaten the home team 2-1.Overall it is England’s fourth series win there.
“It’s a very special day for us, it’s been a special tour and we’ll have great memories. Today was a fantastic effort by Trotty and Belly. Alright, it was a flat pitch, but how calmly they batted was fantastic,” said England skipper Alastair Cook.
“We were slightly surprised how low and slow the pitch was, and it got better as the game went on. We knew when we batted in the second innings we had to make it very hard to take those wickets so credit to our batsmen for fronting up and taking on that challenge.”
The clueless bowling could take just one wicket in all the day as they had no answer to the sagaciousness of Trott and Bell, who shared a record 208-run fourth-wicket stand to shatter Indian hopes to tie the series.
Pace spearhead James Anderson, who blew away the Indian top-order with his catastrophic four-wicket haul on the day 3, was named man-of-the-match while Cook, who plundered 521 runs in eight innings at an exceptional average of 70.12 with three successive tons, clobbered man-of-the-series award.
Resuming the innings at 161-3 with the overnight scores of 66 and 24 runs respectively, Trott and Bell continued to bat on defensively and teased the hosts with sagacious stroke-play.
Laced with 18 boundaries, Trott’s 310-ball knock came to an end shortly before tea when he spooned a catch to Virat Kohli at deep off spinner Ravichandran Aswhin.
Bell, who got a lifeline after being dropped by Virender Sehwag at slips when on 75, continued to deify the Indian bowling attack in the company of Joe Root (20 not out).
With the series victory, England have consolidated their second-placed position behind South Africa in the ICC Test rankings.