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Untitled Document
 England save Oval Test, India win series
14th Aug 2007 07:58 IST
Agencies
India ended 21 years of agonising wait for its first Test series win in England but the feat lost some of its gloss with the beleaguered hosts escaping with a draw in the final encounter of the three-match series at The Oval on Monday.
Chasing 500 for an improbable win, England could not re-write history but they at least showed enough guts and gumption to bat out the entire final day and deny India a 2-0 win in the series.
The hosts, in their second innings, were 369/6 at stumps with Matt Prior (12*) and Ryan Sidebottom (3*) in the middle, leaving India 4-wicket away from a win. Kevin Pietersen top scored for the hosts with 101, while Ian Bell (62) played a gutsy knock down the order.
The series defeat, however, snapped England's glorious run of 11 unbeaten home series.
After salvaging a lucky draw in the first Test at Lord's, India comprehensively beat the hosts at Trent Bridge to go 1-0 up in the series and then dominated major part of the final Test at The Oval only to let the hosts off the hook and settle for a draw.
Though Rahul Dravid would be happy to have led the side to its first Test series win on British soil since 1986, his decision not to enforce a follow-on despite a mammoth first innings lead of 319 would continue to dominate debates across the cricketing world.
Meanwhile, for the hosts, it was Pietersen's 10th Test century that kept England on course to save the final Test.
The maverick batsman curbed his attacking nature and mixed caution with aggression. After Michael Vaughan's exit, he found an able ally in Paul Collingwood (40) who was hanging around till S Sreesanth trapped him with the first delivery after the new ball was taken.
Pietersen came to the wicket after India had removed both the England openers and he got off the mark courtesy a full toss from Anil Kumble that he drove past the bowler to the fence before playing an excellent drive off the spinner.
After losing Vaughan soon after Lunch, Pietersen thrived in the company of Collingwood as the pair had to deal with vicious turning deliveries from Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar on a wearing pitch.
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