With patient centuries in the second innings, Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell ensured a draw for England in the fourth Test at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium. The drawn match resulted in the visitors clinching the series against India by a 2-1 margin and lifting the Anthony de Mello trophy.
After losing the first match in Ahmedabad, Alastair Cook led from the front and helped England bounce back to register convincing wins in the next two games. 2-1 ahead in the four-Test series, the visitors managed a draw in the last game at Jamtha. With this result, a series win for England against India in the longest format of the game came after 28 long years. It was during the 1984-85 tour that the David Gower-led side had come from behind to win that series.
Earlier on the fifth day of the match, Trott and Bell picked up where they had left off the previous day and took England to a comfortable position at lunch. Coming together when England were 94 for the loss of three on the fourth day, the duo applied themselves well. While building on the lead at a steady pace, Bell brought up his half-century, while Trott reached his first century of the series. Bell reached the three-figure mark with a boundary off Ravichandran Ashwin, while Trott struck Piyush Chawla to the fence to reach the hundred-run mark a little later. Although runs didn’t flow freely, the English batsmen kept their wickets intact and saw their team through the session. The duo garnered 79 runs in the morning session to bat India out of the game. Their partnership for the fourth wicket had reached 146 at lunch as the Indian bowlers struggled to get a breakthrough. England were poised on 240 for three at the end of the first session as the match headed to a draw and a series win for England.
With the result a foregone conclusion, the Indian bowlers toiled post lunch but without much respite as Trott and Bell continued to add to the total. It was towards the end of the second session that England’s No.3 departed for 143; caught at leg slip by Virat Kohli off Ashwin. Joe Root then replaced Trott and joined Bell in the middle to take England to tea at 310 for four.
Bell, who last reached the three-figure mark in August 2011 when he had scored a double-century against India, resumed his innings on 87 in the final session. The batsman brought up his century in the third session and remained unbeaten on 116 when England declared their innings with Root not-out on 20 and England on 352 for four.
This was the first time in eight years that India lost a Test series on home soil.
Man-of-the-Match: James Anderson for his four-wicket haul in the 1st innings.
Man-of-the-Series: Alastair Cook for his sterling performance with the bat. The England captain scored 562 runs in eight innings, including three centuries in the first three Tests.
Brief scores:
At the end of Day 5: England 2nd innings 352/4 decl. in 154 overs (J Trott 143, I Bell 116*, R Ashwin 2/99)
At the end of Day 4: India 1st innings 326/9 decl. in 143 overs (R Ashwin 29*, M Panesar 1/81); England 2nd innings 161/3 in 79 overs (J Trott 66*, N Compton 34, R Jadeja 1/27)
At the end of Day 3: India 1st innings 297/8 in 130.1 overs (Virat Kohli 103, MS Dhoni 99, J Anderson 4/68, G Swann 3/76)
At the end of Day 2: England 1st innings 330 all out in 145.5 overs (J Root 73, M Prior 57, G Swann 56, P Chawla 4/69, I Sharma 3/49); India 1st innings 87/4 in 41 overs (G Gambhir 37, J Anderson 3/24)
At the end of Day 1: England 1st innings 199/5 in 97 overs (K Pietersen 73, M Prior 34*, J Root 31*, 2/32, I Sharma R Jadeja 2/34)
