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India complete victory by an innings and 46 runs Ralph Dellor - 26 August 2002
It took 13 balls on the final morning of this Test for Nasser Hussain to reach his twelfth Test century, his fifth as England captain and his fourth against India as he led England's resistance at Headingley. However, once he was out for 110, that resistance crumbled and India swept to a convincing win by an innings and 46 runs to level the series with one match to play. Hussain started on his way by driving the fifth ball of the day handsomely through the covers for four. He pulled a thunderous four to bring up the century partnership with Alec Stewart, and then nudged a two square on the leg side to reach a hundred off 184 balls with one six and 16 boundaries. At the other end, Stewart was looking far less certain, playing and missing and generally failing to locate the middle of the bat, but hanging on resolutely. As so often happens when one batsman is struggling, it is the other who falls first. Anil Kumble came on from the football stand end and, with his sixth ball, had Hussain pushing forward and edging to bat/pad where Virender Sehwag swooped for a very good one-handed catch. Stewart took a single off the second ball of Zaheer Khan's next over, new batsman Andrew Flintoff got a no ball first up before edging the next to Rahul Dravid at slip. It was his fourth Test innings on this ground and his fourth nought. He has survived for a grand total of 11 balls. Stewart had faced 135 in this innings alone when Kumble spun one past his forward defensive push and the ball was edged to Dravid at slip. Stewart was out for 47, and England had lost three wickets for two runs in ten balls. Ashley Giles and Alex Tudor made a decent fist of defiance for nine overs and had even played some cultured strokes when self-inflicted disaster struck. Tudor pushed a ball from Harbhajan Singh just to Sourav Ganguly's left at mid-on. For some reason known only to Giles himself and one that he will always regret, he set off for a single. Realising that Tudor was not interested, his attempt to turn and regain his ground was totally inadequate. Tudor himself followed eight runs later when he was taken at bat/pad by Sehwag, before Andrew Caddick edged Kumble to gully where Ganguly took the catch and India had completed their victory in only 153 balls on the final morning and, once Hussain had gone, only 78 minutes passed before the match was over and India were heading to The Oval at one-all in the series and their spirits sky high. © CricInfo
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