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History of India vs England..

Filed under India vs England

Cricket is a game that evolved from England, and England is a country that ruled on us for 200 years.. willingly or unwillingly, well that's not what I want to explain here. What I want to explain is that that relationship proved to be vital for grounding the roots of cricket here in my country - India. So a cricket match between India and England has been happening for a long time.. letsHistoryOfIndiaEngland.jpg have a look at what where the results and important factors in those matches..

Maharaja of Porbandar(a state of India in those days) led the first ever cricket team of India on a tour of England. He didn't had too many cricket skills, but his aura was enough to make him the captain and go on that prestigious tour, not necessarily to play cricket.. We lost that one test match series 1-0 but not before making a very good start in the last innings - chasing 346 for a win, but failed by 158 runs..

In 1933, England used to send their second squad on international tours as they wanted to keep their main players fit and ready for the Ashes series.. but on this first ever tour of England's cricket team, the sent their best team - led by Douglas Jardine. Would you believe - In those days, although England played three tests and quite a few other matches, the opposition player were more or less same. That showed that their were not many cricket playing men in India at that time.. England won the series 2-0 with Indians managing to draw a test match.. their first ever draw!!

That draw earned our countrymen a full tour of England, but they managed to win only 4 matches out of 28 they played. The consolation they got was another draw in the third test at Old Trafford. Indians did it after giving away a lead of 368 runs, but centuries from Vijay Merchant and Mustaq Ahmad made sure we don't loose the match..

Then came the world war and then the protest against the British India. So there were no cricket match for 10 years till 1946. In that series, Vijay Merchant was again the hero from our side, making 2385 runs in 29 first class matches at an average of 74.53. We saw another cricket hero emerging as Vinoo Mankad who took 129 wickets on that tour. Although India lost the 3 test series 1-0, they made sure that they will be remembered...and this became a reality when England came here in 1951. We beat them in the last test match to earn our first ever test match win. The 5 match series was draw and India saw new cricket talent in Vijay Hazare and Pankaj Roy. The problem with England on this series was dead pitches. Their fast bowlers made no mark while our spinners made the dance with their spin. The result : 1-1 with 3 draw test matches..

1952 and 1959 tour to England is something you don't want to know if you are a Indian supporter. We lost the series 3-0 and 4-0HistoryOfIndiaEngland2.jpg respectively and we also managed to be dismissed twice in a single day at Old Trafford!! see score card if you are interested..

So lets just jump to 1962 series, where we BEAT THE ENGLISH TEAM for our first ever series win against them. England made a good start in the first test but in the second test at Kanpur, they were forced to follow-on for the first time by India and eventually lost the series 2-0 with three draw test matches...This and This are the score card of that test matches that we won..

1963 series saw all the five test matches as draws and we lost the series 3-0 while touring England in 1967. The part one should remember of that series was 246 made by Geoff Boycott, and being dropped after that as he scored his runs so very slowly!!

England lost the 1971 and 1973 series as they had no answer to the spin trio of India - Bisen Singh Bedi, Chandrasekar and Venkataraghavan. We won the series 1-0 and 2-1 respectively and thus, we were crowned the unofficial world Champions tag at that time. We had won four out of 13 test matches with loosing only one of them.. But the series in 1974 in England, which we lost 3-0 and also the first ever ODI series between India and England by 2-0, we lost that champions tag..

The England team that came in 1976 was under heavy pressure after having lost to Australia and West Indies. But they won the series here 3-1 and salvaged some pride..And when our Indian team went to England for a cricket series in 1979, the started very badly by loosing the first test by an innings. But would you believe, the final test was draw when India failed to make 9 more runs. Sunil Gawaskar had made 221 and got us so very close to a winning target of 438. See the score card of that match..

The England's tour of Indian in 1981 was dead as far as wickets are concerned. India won the first test at Bombay and then on, the series was dull. Madan Lal and Kapil Dev took 10 wickets at Bombay in that low scoring match, making Indian win another series against England..We also won the ODI series 2-1.

England placed another series very soon in 1984 to take the revenge and they succeeded. They won the test series 2-1 with two draw test matches and also won the ODI series 4-1. In 1986, we again won the test and ODI series 2-0 and 2-0KaifInNatwestFinal.jpg respectively and had proven that England was one of the favourite opposition of ours..

Then in 1990, we lost the test series 1-0 with 2 draw test matches, but managed to win the ODI series 2-0. And then again in 1992, on Indian pitches, England had no answer to Anil Kumble who took 21 wickets in the series and England lost the series 3-0. They also lost the ODI series 4-2.

The series in 1996 saw Sourav Ganguly playing in Indian colours who scored two back to back centuries to avoid England winning the series with a bigger margin. England had won the first test so they won the series 1-0. Then in 2001, England again had no answer to Anil Kumble's fastish leg breaks, who was now joined in by Harbhajan Singh. Nasser Hussain side lost the test series 1-0 and drew the ODI series 3-3, after which - Andrew Flintoff moved around his T-Shit all over the ground..

The last test series between India and England was in 2002, which was 1-1, with a draw at Trent Bridge. This series is known for the Natwest final where India chased down 326 runs to win the final and then - Sourav Ganguly took his revenge by removing his T-Shirt and moving it over his head - Very similar to what Andrew Flintoff had done two years ago.

See the Score Card of that Natwest Final in 2002.

England in India : 2006 series
was played at the back of 2005 Ashes series that England won after 18 long years. Thus, their moral was high arriving in India. Michael Vaughan was the captain whereas Marcus Trescothick the vice-captain.. both of them return back to UK evenbefore a single ball was bowled in the test series. Reason - Injury to Vaughan but mental stress to Trescothick.

Result - Andrew Flintoff was made the stand-in captain of England, who I must add, did a wonderful job. Flintoff was instrumental in executing coach Duncan Fletcher's plans on field, & England won the 2nd test after losing the first. That series also saw rise of Alaister Cook - the opener who flew in from Caribbean as a replacement of Trescothick. The 3 test match series ended up 1-1 draw, but India came back strongly to win the 7 ODI series 6-1.




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