Five great Indian Test performances in England

A look back at India's great Test performances on English soil, where, historically, it hasn't tasted much success in the longest format of the sport.

Published : Jul 30, 2018 21:08 IST

India recorded its first Test victory on English soil in 1971, giving it a 1-0 win in a series of three Tests. The victory at the Oval was one of the great Indian Test wins, achieved coming from behind in the Test match. The Ajit Wadekar-led team conceded a 71-run, first-innings lead in the final Test of the series. But, thanks to its spin trio of B. S. Chandrasekhar (six), S. Venkatraghavan (two) and B. S. Bedi (one), who took nine of the 10 second-innings wickets, India bowled England out for 101, leaving itself with an achievable target of 173. Sunil Gavaskar, opening the innings, went without troubling the scorers and his opening partner, Vinoo Mankad, didn't offer much of a resistance either. But resolute batting from the Indian middle order — Wadekar made 45, Dilip Sardesai made 40 and G. Viswanath made 33 — and Farookh Engineer's unbeaten 28 lower down the order helped India successfully achieve the target.

Saving the Old Trafford Test in 1990 has been one of the great rearguard acts of the Indian cricket team, particularly overseas. Thanks to an unbeaten 119 in the second innings by Sachin Tendulkar, who was dropped at slip by Allan Lamb early in his innings, India managed to bat out the final day and deny England a win. The visitor was tottering at six for 183 when Manoj Prabhakar joined Tendulkar and put together an unbeaten 160-run stand for the seventh wicket, to avoid defeat. This was a high-scoring match in which over 1600 runs were scored in the four innings combined.

India's victory at Headingley by an innings and 46 runs will remain one of its massive Test wins... for the sheer timing and manner of it. It came on the back of a complete team effort with the batsmen piling the runs on the board in the first innings, after Sourav Ganguly had won the toss and boldly chosen to bat first on a green seamer, and the Indian bowlers, led by the spin twins Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, taking 20 wickets to seal the win.

The win at Trent Bridge in 2007 helped India win a Test series in England for the first time in 21 years. The Indian seamers, led by Zaheer Khan, thrived in the seamer-friendly conditions of Nottingham, skittling England out for 198 in the first innings on the first day. India then went on to post a big first-innings score (481) and take a 283-run lead. England's improved batting performance in the second innings only managed to forced India to bat for a second time in the Test match. And, set a small target of 73, India won by seven wickets.

India's victory at Lord's in 2014 ended a winless streak of 12 Tests outside the sub-continent. An Ajinkya Rahane century on the first day on a green pitch and India getting close to 300 in its first innings laid the foundation for the win. England managed to take only a 24-run lead in reply to India's 295 and India's improved batting performance in the second innings helped it set England a formidable target of 319. A hostile spell of fast bowling from Ishant Sharma, who carried out the short-pitch bowling tactic to the letter and finished with seven for 74 in the second innings, paved the way for an Indian win by 95 runs.

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India recorded its first Test victory on English soil in 1971, giving it a 1-0 win in a series of three Tests. The victory at the Oval was one of the great Indian Test wins, achieved coming from behind in the Test match. The Ajit Wadekar-led team conceded a 71-run, first-innings lead in the final Test of the series. But, thanks to its spin trio of B. S. Chandrasekhar (six), S. Venkatraghavan (two) and B. S. Bedi (one), who took nine of the 10 second-innings wickets, India bowled England out for 101, leaving itself with an achievable target of 173. Sunil Gavaskar, opening the innings, went without troubling the scorers and his opening partner, Vinoo Mankad, didn't offer much of a resistance either. But resolute batting from the Indian middle order — Wadekar made 45, Dilip Sardesai made 40 and G. Viswanath made 33 — and Farookh Engineer's unbeaten 28 lower down the order helped India successfully achieve the target.
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