Fourth Test ends in draw, England clinch the series 2-1

This day was a destined for England to go into the record books, as Alastair Cook’s energetic team registered their nations first series win on Indian soil since 28 years, The fourth Test here ended in a  draw on the final day and England have won the series 2-1.

For hosts, this is their 1st Test series loss at home after eight years since Australia won 2-1 in 2004, and also for MS Dhoni as captain in India. Going into the final Test, there was a lot of hope from India to win the match and square the series, but it could not happen. Leave aside the pressure on Dhoni continuing as captain, there were controversy concerning about the pitch and rifts in the team as well as the poor form of Sachin Tendulkar. 

In the fourth Test there was a marked improvement, but England were powered by Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell's centuries to guarantee a draw. The session after tea went as expected with Bell getting his 17th Test century; Joe Root also remained unbeaten on 20 when England declared at of 352 for 4 with a lead of 356 runs.

Earlier, as expected nothing significant happened in the second session, as England played for a draw and went into tea at 310 for 4. Just prior to the tea break, R Ashwin dismissed Jonathan Trott for 143 off 310 balls and thus ended an immovable partnership of 208 runs. Trott had carried from where he left on Sunday and made his eighth Test century in the 1st  session of day five..
India started the day with a hope of some wonder and getting the remaining  wickets quickly  to give them a chance for a win. But with the pitch having totally eased out, Trott and Bell had different plans and grinded out India in the 1st session.

Man of the Match – James Anderson, Man of the Series – Alastair Cook

1st Test: Strauss ton puts England on top on Day 2

London Andrew Strauss hit his first century in 26 innings to lead England to 259 for 3 against West Indies at stumps on day two of the first Test, surging into a lead of 16 on Friday. Strauss' unbeaten 121, which came from 249 balls with 19 boundaries, was jubilantly received by the Lord's crowd and put England in charge.

Jonathan Trott made 58, with six fours from 134 balls on a frustrating day for West Indies, for whom Marlon Samuels was the most effective bowler with 1 for 34. Earlier, West Indies was all out for 243 to the first ball of the day when Stuart Broad, who took a career-best 7 fro 72, dismissed debutant Shannon Gabriel to give England the best possible start. 

Broad's previous best performance was 6 for 46 against India at Trent Bridge in 2011. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was left stranded on his overnight score of 87 not out, after Broad had debutant Gabriel caught at second slip by Graeme Swann for a first-ball duck.

England advanced to 47 before Alastair Cook dragged a Kemar Roach ball onto his stumps and was bowled for 26. Strauss played the occasional ugly shot, but grew in confidence alongside Trott, who looked characteristically unflustered until he survived an lbw call by the slimmest of margins early in the afternoon session.

In the 25th over Trott was rapped on the pad by West Indies captain Darren Sammy. Umpire Aleem Dar ruled Trott not out, but Sammy asked for a referral, which showed that a fraction less than half the ball would have hit the stumps — meaning the decision couldn't be overturned.

England went half an hour after lunch without scoring a boundary, but Sammy then conceded 22 runs from successive overs as Strauss moved up a gear. Strauss passed 50 with his ninth four but nerves seemed to affect him in the evening session as he moved towards his century.

On 95 he had a double reprieve when he swished at a ball from Fidel Edwards and edged it straight to Chanderpaul, who dropped an easy chance just as umpire Dar was signalling a no-ball. West Indies got an urgently needed wicket when Sammy had Trott caught behind in the 64th over — ending a 147-run stand — but Strauss brought up his century, from 213 balls, when he cut Sammy through backward point.

Having failed to score a ton since November 2010 Strauss had been under increasing pressure from sections of the British media, but the admiration of England's fans and his own teammates was seldom in doubt. Strauss was given a standing ovation by the crowd and his colleagues on the dressing room balcony, an almost suffocating bear hug from his batting partner Kevin Pietersen, and he even received sporting handshakes from his opponents.

Pietersen was in punchy form for 32 but he was caught behind trying to cut Marlon Samuels in the 77th over, after a single from Strauss from the previous delivery had brought up the 50 partnership and taken England into the lead.

West Indies' frustration was compounded when Edwards pulled with an apparent leg injury after bowling just two deliveries with the new ball, but with the light fading play was immediately suspended and then abandoned for the day.

Sri Lanka beat England to win first Test

Galle: Rangana Herath completed a maiden 10-wicket haul to take Sri Lanka to an emphatic 75-run victory in the first Test against England despite Jonathan Trott's defiant century threatening to steal the game.

Chasing 340 to win, England were bowled out for 264 just after tea on the fourth day on Thursday. Herath finished the match with 12 for 171, having taken six wickets in each innings. He was named Man of the Match. Herath's spin bowling partner Suraj Randiv took 4 for 74.

Trott faced 266 balls and hit 10 boundaries before being out just before tea. It was his seventh century playing his 27th Test. Trott and wicketkeeper Matt Prior shared 81 runs for the fifth wicket to raise England's hopes but it was always a difficult chase on a spinner-friendly pitch at Galle. Prior, who made 41, was caught by Lahiru Thirimanne off Herath with the total on 233. Tillakaratne Dilshan took a diving catch on the rebound to dismiss Samit Patel (9).

England's hopes were all but over when Trott was caught well at leg-slip by Dilshan off spinner Randiv. England, the No. 1 Test team, lost their last six wickets for 31 runs and it is their fourth straight Test defeat after losing all matches of a three-match Test series against Pakistan. England were dismissed for 193 in their first innings in reply to Sri Lanka's 318. Sri Lanka made 214 in their second innings.

England captain Andrew Strauss felt that his team lost too many wickets despite being in a good position.

"There's no room for mistakes," Strauss said. "If you make them you've got to be lucky to get away with them and this game we weren't. We were in a great position to make use of the wicket but we all fell a bit too softly."

On the other hand, Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene praised Herath, saying he had taken on the responsibility of leading a less-fancied bowling unit since Muralitharan's retirement.

"He is the most experienced bowler I have right now," Jayawardene said. "He has taken the responsibility not just here but also away from home as well when he bowled us to victory in South Africa."

Jayawardene said Sri Lanka had to be patient when Trott and Prior were batting, hoping that the new ball will create a wicket chance. The hosts took the new ball in the 80th over and the partnership was broken within the next six balls.

"I thought Trott batted really well. It was a very patient knock from him," Jayawardene said. "It was a good challenge to go against the No. 1 team. We knew we had to work really hard to get a result."

Herath said he doesn't want to become overwhelmed by his new responsibility.

"Just because I take that pressure on me, I can't do anything extra," he said. "I know my limitations and I work within those."

The second and final Test will be played at P.Sara Oval in Colombo starting next Tuesday.

2nd Test: Ajmal late strikes peg back England

Abu Dhabi: Pakistan offspinner Saeed Ajmal removed Alastair Cook for 94 and took two more late wickets to restrict England to 207-5 and ensure the second Test is poised at stumps on Thursday after the second day.

Cook hit 10 boundaries in batting for nearly five hours and Jonathan Trott scored a gritty 74 with seven boundaries, but England lost 3-9 late in the day to trail by 50 runs after having bowled out Pakistan for 257 earlier in the morning.

Ajmal went wicketless for 24 overs before dismissing Cook, Kevin Pietersen (14) and Eoin Morgan (3) in his last five to finish with 3-67.

Ajmal mesmerized England's batsmen last week in taking 10-97 to inspire Pakistan to a 10-wicket win in the first Test at Dubai.

Cook put on 139 for the second wicket with Trott before he was out leg-before-wicket when he looked set for his 20th Test century.

Trott should have been out lbw on 22 off Ajmal, but Pakistan failed to ask for a television referral when replays showed that the ball would have hit the top of middle and off-stump.

Becoming frustrated with the stand, Pakistan wasted both their referrals on Trott before and after he had completed his half-century off 95 balls with six fours.

Both England batsmen were watchful as Pakistan failed to take a wicket in the second session on a pitch that offered assistance to the slow bowlers.

Left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman broke the stand after tea when Trott missed the line of the ball which brushed his off-stump.

England had lost skipper Andrew Strauss before lunch after having ended Pakistan's innings inside 15 minutes of Thursday's play.

The out-of-form captain struggled for 42 balls before falling to offspinner Mohammad Hafeez, before Trott and Cook joined in for a stand lasting nearly 3½ hours.

Strauss scored only 16 and 9 in the first Test and looked out of sorts on Thursday against spin, with Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq deploying his slow bowlers as early as the sixth over.

Strauss succumbed when a big deflection from his bat onto his pads offered a simple catch to Asad Shafiq close to the pitch.

Earlier, Pakistan added only one run to their overnight score of 256-7 before Stuart Broad and James Anderson ended the innings in the space of 16 deliveries.

Broad finished with 4-47 after trapping Misbah lbw off his fourth delivery, which nipped back into the Pakistan captain. Misbah hit five fours and four sixes in his 84. He used the referral but TV umpire Billy Bowden upheld onfield umpire Steve Davis' decision.

Anderson trapped Ajmal lbw and forced Junaid Khan to loop a catch to slips to end the innings and enable the swing bowler to finish with 2-46.

Offspinner Graeme Swann took 3-52 while recalled spinner Monty Panesar had 1-91.

1st Test: Pakistan beat England by 10 wickets

Dubai: Pakistan handed top-ranked England their first Test defeat in 13 months with a blowout 10-wicket victory inside three days on Thursday.

Pakistan stubbornly extended their first innings in the morning to 338 for a lead of 146, then began before lunch dismantling England in their second innings for 160 inside 58 overs.

Umar Gul's aggressive bowling for 4-63, coupled with some shocking shot selection by the Englishmen, left Pakistan with only 15 runs to win the opening Test of the three-match series, and opener Mohammad Hafeez hit three boundaries in collecting them all.

It was top-ranked England's first defeat since losing to Australia in the Ashes Test at Perth in 2010. England had won seven of nine since then.

Pakistan extended their unbeaten run in Tests to eight since May, including six victories.

Offspinner Saeed Ajmal, who grabbed a career-best 7-55 in England's first innings score of 192, added three more wickets to be named man of the match. It was second career match haul of 10 wickets.

Abdur Rehman showed England why they should have included left-arm spinner Monty Panesar with 3-37, and narrowly missed a hat-trick.

After Adnan Akmal's gutsy half-century stretched Pakistan's first-innings lead to 146, Gul had England on the mat by tea at 75-5, claiming three wickets.

Gul had reduced England to 16-1 at lunch when captain Andrew Strauss was adjudged caught behind off a leg-side delivery after TV umpire Steve Davis upheld onfield umpire Billy Bowden's decision.

Opener Alastair Cook (5) and Kevin Pietersen (0) departed from attempting shocking pull shots against Gul.

In his second spell, Gul found a thick outside edge of topscorer Jonathan Trott, who attempted an expansive cover drive to try and to reach a half century. Trott was out for 49 off 111 balls.

Ajmal undid Ian Bell for 4 with his doosra. The batsman halfheartedly called for a review but started walking back after watching the replay on the big screen at Dubai International Cricket Stadium with the ball striking his back leg in front of the stumps.

Rehman struck just before tea when Eoin Morgan on 14 got a faint edge to the wicketkeeper, and was on a hat trick when he dismissed Stuart Broad (17) and Chris Tremlett (0) off successive deliveries with England still 11 runs shy of making Pakistan bat again.

Graeme Swann (39) and James Anderson (15) ensured England did not lose by an innings with a 25-run last wicket stand before Ajmal wrapped up the innings by finding the leading edge of Swann's bat and Asad Shafiq making a low catch and roll at short cover.

Pakistan resumed overnight at 288-7 and thanks to the diminutive Akmal hitting 61 with eight fours, frustrated England for an hour and a quarter.

Akmal lost Gul for a duck when he hit Broad in only the second over of the day to Morgan at point.

Akmal gathered a precious 30 runs with Ajmal before Swann had the latter caught close to the wicket for 12.

The last-wicket stand of 19 — all made by Akmal — added to England's frustration as the Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman kept the strike from No. 11 Aizaz Cheema for four overs.

Akmal played some extravagant strokes that included two reverse swept boundaries off Swann. He brought up his second Test half-century with a similar stroke for two runs and pumped his fist in joy while raising his bat toward his teammates in the dressing room.

Swann finally closed Pakistan's first innings when Akmal went out of the crease but missed the line and was stumped by Prior down the legside. Swann ended with 4-107 while Broad claimed 3-84.

The second Test begins at Abu Dhabi on Jan. 25, and the teams return to Dubai for the last Test from Feb. 3.