India battle back to inflict England’s earliest test defeat in a century

England cricket will spend this spring touring India where they will face off against a host nation who start as underdogs but are determined to cause an upset.
The rivals trade blows in a sequence of intriguing International Twenty20 matches before the stakes are raised when switching attentions to the One Day International Series which runs from Tuesday 23 March to Sunday 28 March.
With the games scheduled to be shown live on television to a massive global audience, fans in England and India will be eager to keep up to speed with the play and cheer their favourites to victory. Major bookmakers from across the world will also be offering betting odds on the outcome with sports reviews advertising the best odds on an England win or victory for India.
Which side will come out on top, adding confidence to their ranks heading into what promises to be an important and busy summer period? A strong case could be made for either nation but a check on the form in an eventful Test Match series offers some clues.

Tourists off to a flyer

India and England have already become familiar this year due to the Test Series in February. Thee tourists got off to a winning start by trouncing their hosts by a total of 227 runs in the 1st Test Match. The scoreboard after five days of play read India 337 all out and 192 all out against an impressive 578 all out and 178 all out. The damage was done in the first innings as England laid down a marker for the series.
The home team didn’t take too kindly to the embarrassment suffered in that 1st Test Match mauling, however, and roared back into contention. They took just four days to dispatch an England side that seemed to be suffering from overconfidence, perhaps thinking they already had the measure of their generous hosts.
Taking this Indian team lightly is never a good idea and they proved it by levelling the series at 1-1. The 2nd Test Match scoreboard displayed India 329 all out and 286 all out England the 134 all out and 164 all out from England. That left India with a stunning 317 runs victory.

Hosts strike back in stunning fashion

If fans of Indian cricket thought the 2nd Test fightback was incredible, they had seen nothing yet. The 3rd Test Match was won by India in just two days with the margin of victory being 10 wickets. In what was a remarkable day with mistakes made by both teams India held their nerve to take advantage and secure the quickest win since 1935.
The beaten team will look back on their performance and point the finger of blame at a woeful first-day performance. They won the toss and elected to bat but were bowled out for 112. The stats of the match didn’t offer any crumbs of comfort for the English fans either with this being their team’s first defeat inside two days since 1921.
India wrapped up the series with another victory in the 4th Test Match at Ahmedabad between the 4th and 8th of March. The decider lasted only a day longer than the game before with India crossing the line on day three thanks to a winning margin of an innings and 25 runs.
England racked up another pitiful effort, looking a shadow of the team that started the series. Scores of 205 and 135 made things easier for their hosts who knocked 365. It was a real team effort from the victors, but special mention went to Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin who sealed the deal.

Fans forced to accept defeat

It was a defeat many fans in England hadn’t expected but one they were forced to take on the chin, admitting India were the better team. The tourists showed in the 1st Test Match victory just how good they can perform but their performances thereafter failed to get anywhere near the levels demonstrated there.
England did help wipe away their tears with a convincing win over India in the 1st T20 match, scoring by eight wickets, but it will be a long time before they are allowed to forget that crushing series defeat to an opponent who, once again, proved they are a force in International Test Match cricket.