England routed India by 319 runs in the second Test at Trent Bridge yesterday to take a 2-0 lead in the four-Test series, a margin that will give the hosts the No. 1 ranking in the world if maintained.
India collapsed to 158 all out with more than a day left in the match for their heaviest ever runs defeat against England, who won the first Test by 196 runs at Lord’s last week.
Tim Bresnan capped a superb all round display with figures of 5-48 after having earlier scored 90 to help set the visitors a record victory target of 478.
James Anderson took 3-51, including the prize wicket of India’s top scorer Sachin Tendulkar, who made 56, from 86 balls with eight fours. Stuart Broad claimed 2-30.
“There have been some outstanding contributions in the last two test matches,” England captain Andrew Strauss said. “It was a fantastic turnaround and I’m very proud of what we’ve done this week.”
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni acknowledged his batsmen had underperformed.
“It’s important to score runs,” he said. “We have not really scored fast or scored consistently so that’s also a bit of a concern.
“There were quite a few things that were bothering us. Missing one of your key fast bowlers, when you’re playing with four bowlers, it becomes difficult to manoeuvre things,” he added, referring to Zaheer Khan’s hamstring injury at Lord’s.
Earlier, India bowled England out for 544 in the morning session, with Ian Bell hitting 159. The hosts made rapid progress after starting on 441-6, 374 runs ahead.
Bresnan hit 17 fours from 118 balls before he was caught by Rahul Dravid off Praveen Kumar, while Matt Prior was caught behind off Kumar for 73, from 60 balls with 10 fours.
Broad chipped in with 44 after earlier contributions of 70 from Eoin Morgan and 63 by Kevin Pietersen. Kumar was India’s best bowler with 4-124.
Edged
Having added 417 runs on Sunday’s third day – the most England have scored in a single day since making 437 against Pakistan at this venue in 1954 – the hosts continued to score freely, adding 103 runs in 90 minutes.
Bresnan reached his 50, from 68 balls, with the third delivery from the day, a false shot to Sreesanth that he edged for four.
Prior fell to the 10th ball of the day but Broad maintained England’s momentum with a rapid 44 from 32 balls that included two sixes off successive balls from Suresh Raina over midwicket, until he was run out by a direct hit from the substitute fielder WP Saha.
Bresnan was caught by Rahul Dravid in the gully off the next ball from Kumar, before Ishant Sharma ended the innings when he had Graeme Swann caught by a substitute fielder for 3.
