England defeat India after 28 years in India

England won the series by 2-1:

As an individual event this torturous Test match will not linger long in the memory, but for what the end result enabled England to achieve will be chronicled as one of the team's finest hours.

By batting out the final day with barely an alarm, largely through a 208-run stand between Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell, who both scored hundreds, England secured their first series win in India for 28 years.

India have significant weaknesses and problems that need to be addressed, but it has been England's excellence over the last three games that has exposed those shortcomings. On the last day in Nagpur it was two batsmen earning redemption for relatively lean years that prevented any late nerves and added to the complete team nature of the performance.

Trott's hundred, his eighth, was his first since March and for Bell, while also being his first hundred in India, it ended an even longer wait for three figures going back to The Oval against this opposition in 2011 at the end of what had threatened to be a low trip for him.

What was really extraordinary, though, is the turnaround, not only from a crushing defeat in Ahmedabad but also from a year that was on the brink of being their worst ever in Test cricket. Throw into the mix controversy surrounding their star batsman and a change of captain before this series and it is one of England's finest achievements. Alastair Cook, who was able to watch contently from the dressing room during the final day, has laid down a high marker for his captaincy career.

India needed a couple of early wickets to send a few tremors through the England camp but they never threatened. The new ball was taken one over into the day without making a jot of difference. Barring a couple of sessions, this has been a Test devoid of excitement and low in the watchability stakes. England, of course, will not care in the slightest about that but pitches like this are far worse that the "result" surfaces that get the ICC twitchy. If it is not marked down the game's priorities are wrong.

However dead the surface, for Trott and Bell there was a job to do in the first session and they did it expertly. There was good intent from the pair in the first half an hour of the day to ensure the lead was soon in excess of 200 and getting out of sight of India.

Trott has played as freely as anyone in the game and twice drove Ravindra Jadeja beautifully through mid-on - or, in the second case, under mid-on as R Ashwin dived over the ball. His leg-side play was wonderfully elegant throughout the innings. He reached his hundred with two boundaries in three balls against Piyush Chawla, a cover drive followed by a trademark flick wide of mid-on, and allowed a little bit of emotion to come through his steely demeanour.

Trott had not reached three figures since the second innings against Sri Lanka in Galle earlier this year, and it was only his second hundred since making 203 against Sri Lanka in Cardiff in May 2011. However, he has continued to chip in, the average has only dipped and not plummeted, and once again England were immensely grateful to their rock-solid No. 3.

It did not look as though he was going to give away the chance to boost his statistics during the afternoon and it came as a surprise when he clipped Ashwin to leg slip shortly before tea, a few runs short of setting a new record fourth-wicket stand for England in India. That mark remains held by Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood, who added 214 in Chennai in 2008.

Trott's Warwickshire team-mate, Bell, was equally composed in making his first major contribution of a difficult series, where his frailties in India had been exposed again. Although the situation was comfortable for England by lunch, that was not the case when Bell had come in at 94 for 3 so it was a strong display of character from him. His fifty, just the second he had scored in India, came with a straight drive off Ashwin as the off-side play that makes him so pleasing to watch when in form began to make an appearance.

He was given a life on 75 when Virender Sehwag spilled a catch at slip and he would have been run out for 97 by a direct hit from square leg. For much of the afternoon he eked along at a pace befitting this match, but started using his feet to Jadeja, lofting him for a straight six followed by a slightly scuffed boundary over mid-on.

 Bell's series had begun ingloriously when he tried to launch Pragyan Ojha over the top first ball in Ahmedabad only to find mid-off, for which he was heavily, and rightly, criticised. But he is too good a player to shelve the shot. Deep into the final session, shortly before Cook called his men in to put the final stamp on the result, Bell tickled Ashwin down to fine leg from his 293rd delivery. Everything really had come full circle.

India Lost his confidence for 3rd Test

India under pressure due to pitch factors:

It has been a strange old few days between Test matches. Much of the talk has been about an 83-year-old groundsman and the 22 yards he is in charge of. MS Dhoni wants another pitch with spin and bounce - qualities that brought his side's downfall in Mumbai - and predictions for the surface have seemingly covered all bases. England, meanwhile, have sat back, enjoyed a few days off in Mumbai, done some charity work and worked hard in getting a key fast bowler fit.

The two results in this series - India's nine-wicket win and England's ten-wicket success - were of such convincing margins in opposite directions that it makes it difficult to really know where each team sits against each other. Yet such was the turnaround performed by England last week that the prospect of a first series win in India since 1984-85 is now a realistic ambition.

A link between the two results is that they have been achieved with a small collection of outstanding performances. In Ahmedabad it was largely Virender Sehwag, Cheteshwar Pujara and Pragyan Ojha. In Mumbai the matchwinners were Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann. While some individuals have been outstanding, both teams have also carried a number of players.

For England, pressure will be on the Warwickshire pair of Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell (should the latter return) to supplement Cook and Pietersen. Then, of course, there is Sachin Tendulkar. Nobody really knows what he is thinking about the future - it is all rumour and hearsay - but the bottom line is that he has averaged 22.83 this year. It's an intriguing subplot in a fascinating series.

England crush out India and Tied test series by 1-1

England won 2nd test by 10 wickets:

England pulled back to 1-1 in a four-Test series when they breezed to a ten-wicket victory on the fourth morning of the Mumbai Test. It was a victory which will have roused England's self-belief in Asia and which brought into question India's entire strategy for the series of relying on sharply-turning tracks, leaving them with much to ponder ahead of the third Test in Kolkata next week.

India's slow bowlers had been outperformed by their England counterparts, with Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann finishing with 19 wickets in the match in favourable conditions they rarely experience. Panesar's match return was 11 for 210, Swann 8 for 113, but the Test had turned on an attacking century from Kevin Pietersen that will live long in the memory.

Cook and Pietersen equal most centuries for England

Pietersen's unbeaten century for England against India:

Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen both equalled the record for most England Test centuries as they carried the fight against India on the third morning of the second Test in Mumbai.

Cook fell for 122, 35 minutes before lunch, caught at the wicket by MS Dhoni as R Ashwin found turn and bounce. Ashwin's relief was evident as he ended a stand of 206 in 53 overs which had stirred England's hopes of achieving a victory to square the series.

 Pietersen saw through the session unscathed - 138 not out from 178 balls - as England progressed to within 29 runs of India's first-innings total with six wickets remaining. He added 76 in the morning session without a care in the world, his anxiety in Ahmedabad a distant memory.