Flashback: England tour of India - Part III

Tags: England tour of India 2016 -17, India, England, India Vs England 1st Test at Rajkot, Nov 09-13, 2016

Published on: Nov 07, 2016

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

The India-England Test series gets underway with the first Test in Rajkot on November 9.

The India-England Test series gets underway with the first Test in Rajkot on November 9. As a build-up, we look back at England’s last five visits to India. In our second part, we recap England’s tour of India in 2006. Three Tests were played during this series, and the tightly contested series was drawn 1-1 with India unable to maintain their 1-0 lead.
1st Test: The opening Test was held at Nagpur from March 1-5. England won the toss and chose to bat first. They put up 393 on the board, build around Paul Collingwood's unbeaten 134. Alastair Cook made 60 and Andrew Flintoff 43. Sreesanth claimed four wickets and Irfan Pathan three. India were held to 323 in return. Mohammad Kaif made 91, and Wasim Jaffer 81. Lower down the order, Anil Kumble contributed 58. Matthew Hoggard starred with 6 for 57.
England batted excellently in the second innings, finishing on 297 for 3. Cook made his famous unbeaten century on debut, remaining not out on 104 while Kevin Pietersen smashed a quick 87. Chasing 368, the match ended in a draw as India made 260 for 6. Jaffer batted well again, notching up a hundred, and Dravid 71. Hoggard was the man of the match.
2nd Test: The next Test of the series was played at Mohali from March 9-13. England won the toss and batted first. They managed only 300. Flintoff made 70, Pietersen 64 and Geraint Jones 52. Kumble claimed 5 for 76 for India while Munaf Patel picked up three scalps. England did well to restrict India to 388. Dravid made 95, and lower down the order, Irfan Pathan chipped in with 52. Flintoff starred with four scalps for England.
In the second innings, England were cleaned up for merely 181. Ian Bell and Flintoff made 50s each, but the rest struggled. Munaf and Kumble starred again with four wickets each. India were chasing only 144 to win the Test, and did so easily thanks to Sehwag who smashed unbeaten 76. Kumble was named man of the match.
3rd Test: The final Test of the series was played at Mumbai from March 18-22. India won the toss and decided the insert the opposition in. England put up an impressive 400 on the board. Andrew Strauss was brilliant with 128 while debutant Owais Shah surprised with a fluent 88. Down the order, Flintoff made 50. Sreesanth picked up four wickets and Harbhajan three. James Anderson's four-for kept India down to 279. MS Dhoni top-scored with 64 while Dravid made 52.
England were cleaned up for 191 in their second innings, with Flintoff's 50 being the only score of note. Kumble once again starred with four wickets. Chasing a total 313, India were rolled over for 100. Shaun Udal was the surprise star was 4 for 14 while Flintoff claimed 3 for 14. The all-rounder was the man of the match as well as the series.
--By A Cricket Analyst

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