In the end England paid, as we all suspected they would, for two days of indisciplined bowling and a day and a half of ordinary batting. India were good value for their victory, and take the initiative into the final Test at The Oval. The last-day hero was Anil Kumble, with three wickets, but Zaheer Khan wasn't far behind. The fat lady emerged from her dressing-room when England lost three wickets in ten balls. The vital one was Nasser Hussain, after a splendidly defiant hundred, but he got a killer from Kumble, which popped out to short leg, one of six catches in the game for the predatory Virender Sehwag.

Out came Andrew Flintoff, blinking in the headlights. He didn't look too surprised when he collected a double zero to go with his suspected double hernia. That's four noughts in four Test innings at Headingley - he's faced only 11 balls there - and time for a rest for Flintoff. Rumours that Audi want to sponsor him are thought to be wide of the mark.

Stewart completed India's three-card trick, and it was all over bar the shouting ... and the almost obligatory comedy run-out.

Overall it was a terrible performance by England, who even fielded poorly. India managed about double the runs they should have been permitted on a seaming track, and then rolled England over twice. At Lord's the chances of the Indian bowlers taking 20 wickets seemed about as rosy as Nicole Kidman's complexion. By Headingley those same bowlers (plus Harbhajan Singh, whose omission at Lord's was a blunder) were on top - Zaheer, in particular, was always menacing, in a passable impersonation of Wasim Akram.

At the time England's failure to nail India at Trent Bridge seemed just a minor inconvenience. Now it's looking like a major blunder, and could even cost England a series they seemed to be coasting.

Steven Lynch is database director of Wisden Online.

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