Steve Harmison was named in the England squad for the first Test but withdrew just a day later due to a hernia and underwent an operation to treat it, ruling him out for the entire series.

[3] Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh were not named in the Indian squad due to recent poor performances while Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel were not fully fit.

Vaughan edged an R. P. Singh delivery straight to Dhoni while Paul Collingwood went for his first Test duck[5] being deceived by a googly from Kumble and was trapped lbw reducing England to 255/4.

[6] Ryan Sidebottom joined Kevin Pietersen as nightwatchman and survived 5 deliveries before the day ended with England on 268/4.

The day began in similar vein to the previous one with India losing their remaining 6 wickets in the space of 15 overs closing their innings on 201.

At the restart Zaheer Khan left-handed swing troubled the opening batsmen with Strauss and Cook going out in quick succession before play stopped.

After the rain interruption Vaughan and Pietersen survived the final 35 minutes of the play to end the day on 77/2 leading the game by 174 runs.

[8] Pietersen struggled to protect the tail and England were dismissed for 282 before tea setting India a target of 380 runs for victory.

India lost two early wickets of Sourav Ganguly (lbw) and Karthik (caught) meaning that any chance of an Indian victory disappeared.

India won the toss and chose to bowl on a pitch which was wet due to rainfall over the past few days.

Alastair Cook scored 43 and became the youngest England batsman to cross 1500 test runs, before being dismissed lbw by Ganguly.

India were eventually done for 481 with the lower order except Sreeshanth and Singh making some contributions with the bat, and England had a tough 16 overs to reckon with in this day.

Strauss scored fifty, but was dismissed by Khan due to a loose short and Singh struck with the wickets of Peterson and Prior.

England's bowlers worked hard throughout days 1 and 2, but were unable to replicate the successes they had previously achieved against India's powerful batting line up.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored 92, and was only dismissed off the part-time spin of Kevin Pietersen after having hit two massive sixes and attempting a third.

Then, veteran spinner Anil Kumble registered his maiden test century in his 118th match, which was a delightful moment for all followers of Indian cricket.

Kumble would go unbeaten, finishing on 110 not out, and the lower order all contributed useful runs to help India compile an enormous score of 664.

They continued to lose wickets regularly through day 3, with the shot selection of some of the middle order batsmen being called into question.

For a short period, Dravid's decision looked to be potentially dangerous as England captured three very early wickets to leave India on 11/3, with an overall lead of 330.

However, Sourav Ganguly batted aggressively at the other end, and Laxman and Dhoni also contributed to boost India's score, and allow Dravid to declare leaving England exactly 500 to win in 110 overs.

However, there were still questions about the technique of some of the batsmen, with Michael Vaughan, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell all falling to slightly injudicious shots.

India seized on the opportunities they created at Trent Bridge to take the lead, and then first and foremost batted England out of contention in the final test, before thinking about winning it, which they did very effectively.

Alastair Cook and Ian Bell both posted maiden ODI centuries, and James Anderson took three early wickets in India's chase to leave them on 34/4, and ensuring that the target of 289 was well out of their reach.

Surprisingly the two put a record eight wicket partnership for England, the hosts taking the series 3–1 with a three-wicket victory and Broad picking up man of the match for his 45 not out and 4/51.