England complete 196-run win at Lord’s

LONDON, (Reuters) – England completed a 196-run win  over the world’s top-ranked side India at Lord’s today after  James Anderson cut through their middle order with five for 65.
Anderson captured the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar (12)  after dismissing India’s two other most accomplished batsman  Rahul Dravid (36) and Vangipurappu Laxman (56) in the 2,000th  test match and the 100th between the two countries.
Tendulkar, 38, who has scored a world record 14,738 test  runs, has never made more than 37 at Lord’s and is still one  century short of becoming the first person to tally 100  international hundreds.
India were intent on saving the game in the absence of the  injured Virender Sehwag, their one player who could have taken  the game away from the opposition
Instead they pinned their hopes on the proven class and  techniques of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman to mount a rearguard  action. But the Indians failed to stop the home side from taking  a 1-0 lead in the four-test series. England will overtake India  in the rankings if they win the series by at least a two-match  margin.
“The bowling unit was outstanding all the way through the  test match. The way the bowlers stuck to their task today was an  outstanding performance. The wicket was fairly flat and they had  to build pressure and be patient,” England captain Andrew  Strauss said during the presentation ceremony
Dravid and Laxman had made a promising start on Sunday  evening when they guided India to 80 for one and they continued  where they left off in the face of some hostile bowling from  Chris Tremlett who extracted pace and bounce from the pitch.
Dravid was dropped on 35 off Tremlett when Ian Bell at  short-leg leaped high but failed to gather a difficult bat-pad  chance.
After batting for 5-1/2 hours in the first innings for an  unbeaten 103, Dravid failed to repeat his heroics on the final  day and was out after scoring one more run, lbw to Anderson.
Laxman, who had edged a four off Anderson between second  slip and gully, batted calmly to reach his 53rd test  half-century with eight boundaries. He appeared well set when he  gifted his wicket to Anderson, playing a loose shot to leg which  was caught by Bell at mid-wicket.
His dismissal brought Tendulkar to the crease with a  standing ovation from a packed Lord’s crowd, some of whom had  started queuing at three a.m. for the 20,000 tickets on sale.

ANDERSON STRIKES
Tendulkar, batting at number five after he missed most of  Sunday’s play with a virus complaint, turned Anderson sweetly  through mid-wicket for a boundary.
He lost Gautam Gambhir, who had also batted down the order  after he was struck painfully on the elbow while fielding at  short-leg on Sunday, for 22 lbw to Graeme Swann and at lunch  India were a precarious 142 for four.
Tendulkar was becalmed for 48 minutes on 11 after the  interval and survived what appeared to be a justifiable shout  for lbw from Stuart Broad. He was dropped on 12 by Andrew  Strauss at first slip off Anderson then finally departed lbw to  the pace bowler two balls later after 85 laborious minutes.
Suresh Raina, who failed to score in the first innings,  played freely in contrast to Tendulkar’s introspection.
Combining meaty drives and deft deflections, the left-hander  had reached 54 at tea at which stage England still needed a  further five wickets from a minimum 44 overs.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni lingered for 74 minutes before  he was caught behind off Anderson for 16 and Harbhajan Singh  failed to profit from a dropped catch by Eoin Morgan at point  when he had scored 11. He added one more before hooking wildly  at Anderson and lofting the ball to Tremlett at mid-on.
Raina, on 63, survived an lbw shout from Broad when, to the  naked eye and on the television replays, he seemed to be struck  straight in front of the stumps.
To the consternation of the bowler and the entire England  side Billy Bowden was unmoved. The Decision Review System (DRS)  is not being used for lbws in the four-match series because the  Indian cricket board have doubts about ball-tracking technology.
Broad took out his frustration on Praveen Kumar, bowling the  tailender for two and Raina gave Anderson his fifth wicket when  he was caught behind for 78, including 10 boundaries.
Ishant Sharma was the final wicket to fall when he was lbw  to Broad for one. Five wickets had fallen in 15.3 overs after  tea.
Kevin Pietersen was named man-of-the-match for his unbeaten  double century in the first innings.