Rain Forces Early End To Test

The 'series-deciding' fourth  Test between India and England ended in a draw at the Oval today after the fifth and final day's play was abandoned due to rain.

Not a single ball could be bowled on the final day today due to persistent showers and the four-match series ended in a 1-1 deadlock.

England were 114 without loss in their second innings at close of play yesterday after India were all out for 508 to concede a narrow seven run first innings lead.

England had won the first Test at Lord's by 170 runs while India registered their biggest away victory in the third Test at Headingley when they defeated England by an innings and 46 runs.

The 1-1 draw meant India's long wait for their first series victory outside the sub-continent had been prolonged.

India's previous victory came way back in 1986 in England when Kapil Dev's team won the series 2-0.

After their sterling performance at Headingley, the Indians had raised hopes of ending the long drought with a win here. However, even without rain, a draw looked the most plausible result after the first innings had consumed more than three-and-half days with just a seven-run advantage in favour of England.

Rahul Dravid was declared the man of the match as well as India's man of the series for his consistent performance.

Dravid, who capped his dream run in this series with a career-best 217 in this Test, aggregated 602 runs from six innings at an average of 100.33.

Michael Vaughan, who like Dravid completed 600 runs in this series and 1,000 runs this year, was named England's man of the series.

But despite his batting exploits, which include four centuries this summer, Vaughan said the most memorable moment for him in this series came when he clean bowled Sachin Tendulkar in the third Test.

"I think getting Sachin out was pretty special," he said. Vaughan had dislodged the off the off-stump of Tendulkar with a brilliant delivery that deceived the batsman in flight and spun in sharply to go between the bat and pads.

Indian captain Saurav Ganguly said his team had "moved up a few steps" during this series. "But we still have to improve. We are still looking for a series victory. "We batted pretty well throughout this tour. I think we should have bowled a bit better. But then it is a very inexperienced attack. England were a very tough side and I think we fought well," Ganguly said.

England captain Nasser Hussain said his team could have attacked a bit more in the fourth Test but "with a batting line-up as awesome as the Indians have it was a bit threatening".

PTI