Saturday, August 13, 2011

INDIA VS ENGLAND 3rd Test, England reach No. 1 with emphatic win

 England 710 for 7 dec (Cook 294, Morgan 104) beat India 224 (Dhoni 77, Broad 4-53, Bresnan 4-62) and 244 (Dhoni 74*, Anderson 4-85) by an innings and 242 runs



Michael Atherton leads the presentation and starts by congratulating England on their win and, to the cheers of the crowd, their No. 1 ranking.
MS Dhoni , classy as ever, starts by congratulating England on becoming the world's best team. "We need to see what limitations we have. A few of our players are not great fielders and we're not the best looking fielding side in the world. What we're really proud of is our bowling and batting. We have not been able to keep good deliveries out, it's a major area of concern. We need to see out the good ones and make use of the loose deliveries. A couple of defeats doesn't change anything I am still proud of my team. When you play for India there is a lot of expectation and people expect us to win everything but that's not possible. Being No. 1 or not being No. 1 is not important, it's all about being consistent. I've been quite happy with the preparation but it's one of those series where nothing has really clicked for us."
Andrew Strauss: "It wasn't a massive gamble to bowl first, there was probably less in the wicket than we thought there would be and by the time we batted the wicket had gone flat. The wickets have been shared around the bowlers and the pressure they have applied has been relentless, I don't think there are many better in the world right now. It was fantastic to get runs myself and then sit on the sofa and watch Cookie bat for two days. He has amazing concentration and determination, he's in this patch at the moment where he's very clear what his game was and he's an example for us all. Getting to No. 1 has been a goal for a long time and it fills me with a lot of pride to know we have completed something very special. We have had to work very had and the guys have put a lot of hard graft to get to No. 1. "
Alastair Cook is named man of the match And fair enough really, he's been on the field for the entirety of it. "The work put in over the week off has paid dividends for me. Over the last 12 months scoring big hundreds was what I needed to work at and I'm glad that's happened. You want the attacking middle order players to go at the tiring bowlers later in the day. I'm very pleased but it's a huge team effort to bowl a team like that out for less than 250 on a flat wicket in both innings."
To relive this historic day do have a look at Andrew McGlashan's report and our gallery. It's been a long journey for England, ranked the world's worst team at the end of 1999 to climb to the top. Staying there will be almost as difficult. That begins at The Oval next week but for now that's all from me, Sahil Dutta, and from the rest of the team.
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England win by an innings and 242 runs and lead series 3-0 Edgbaston rises as the England players walk off. In the dressing room Andy Flower looks absolutely calm but as the players greet him he manages a smile. This has been a special performance from a very special team. Yet again they have flattened the celebrated India batting line up for under 300. James Anderson led the way with four wickets but was, as ever, backed up by the Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan. MS Dhoni managed to salvage some personal pride with an unbeaten 74 but his team were a long, long way out of the contest. It's the 15th worst innings defeat in Test history and also Dhoni's first series loss as captain.

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