Kolkata, Dec 7: Despite losing three quick wickets during their second at bat, England managed to win the Eden Gardens Test by a thumping margin of seven wickets today.
Needing a mere 41 runs to win, the visitors lost the wickets of Alastair Cook (1), Jonathan Trott (3) and Kevin Pietersen (0) early on, with the scorecard reading 8/3. R Ashwin claimed two out of the three English batsmen to fall, while Pragyan Ojha claimed the other scalp. However, this mini-revival was clearly too little, too late for India, as Ian Bell (28), along with Nick Compton (9), guided the visitors past the finish line.
Earlier, resuming their second innings at 239/9, India managed to add eight runs to their tally. All of these runs came off the willow of No.8 batman, Ashwin, who remained unbeaten on 91. Pragyan Ojha was the last man to fall for India; he was bowled for an individual score of 3 by James Anderson.
Man of the Match: Alastair Cook for his 190-run marathon knock that took the game away from India
Brief scores:
At the end of Day 5: India 2nd innings 247 all out in 84.4 overs (R Ashwin 91*, V Sehwag 49; S Finn 3/38, J Anderson 3/45) England 2nd innings 41/3 in 12.1 overs (I Bell 28; R Ashwin 2/31)
At the end of Day 4: England 1st innings 523 all out in 167.3 overs (A Cook 190, J Trott 87; PP Ojha 4/142); India 2nd innings 239/9 in 83 overs (R Ashwin 83*, V Sehwag 49; S Finn 3/37)
At the end of Day 3: England 1st innings 509/6 in 163 overs (A Cook 190, J Trott 87, PP Ojha 3/140)
At the end of Day 2: India 1st innings 316 all out in 105 overs (MS Dhoni 52, 4/90); England 1st innings 216/1 in 73 overs (A Cook 136*, N Compton 57, J Trott 21*, PP Ojha 1/65)
At the end of Day 1: India 1st innings 273/7 in 90 overs (SR Tendulkar 76, G Gambhir 60, J Anderson 3/68, M Panesar 2/74)
