When the stars failed, lights went out

Lack of experience? England had a 21-year-old with two Tests to his name, a 27-year-old debutant and a 37-year-old with three Tests behind him. India, by contrast, were greyhairs: Tendulkar and Dravid alone had more Test caps than the entire opposition combined.

The difference — not just at Wankhede, but throughout the series — was that England’s established players pulled their weight, the rookies playing a supporting role. For India, with the stars failing, it fell to the rookies to play the lead role — and they were found wanting.

True, Owais Shah came up with impressive knocks in both innings at Wankhede, but England’s momentum came from Andrew Staruss’s first-innings century and Flintoff’s second-innings 50, which consumed 209 precious minutes. And for every Cook, there was a Collingwood to lead the way.

‘‘It’s just the coming generation,’’ says former England captain Mike Gatting. ‘‘They do not have to rely on anything else but their own confidence. That is precisely what helped them win here (in Mumbai).’’

Likewise, the bowling department worked like a well-oiled machine where the experience of Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard inspired James Anderson, Monty Panesar and even Shaun Udal. On the last day of the Mumbai Test, it was Flintoff who provided the vital breakthrough — Dravid’s wicket — before Udal ran through the Indian middle-order for his best-ever Test figures.

‘‘England performed well as a team. They weren’t riding on individual brilliance,’’ reminds Gatting. ‘‘Flintoff led well and the team delivered despite all kinds of limitations.’’

For India, the leadership role was played out by Dravid alone; everyone else failed, especially in the batting department. It’s easy to mock Dhoni for the manner of his dismissal on Wednesday but who was around to show him otherwise?

Dravid’s ‘gift’, says English media

Going lyrical in its praise of the English cricket team, an ecstatic British media thanked rival skipper Rahul Dravid for his “charity” and “lifeline” in asking the visitors to bat first in the Mumbai Test. The common refrain across the British dailies today was Dravid’s generosity and how it went on to shape a rare England triumph on Indian soil:

• England had a one in a million chance of winning the Mumbai Test and Dravid gave them that one chance when he won the toss and asked them to bat. India probably thought England were lacking confidence having lost a Test four days earlier and their batting was prone to collapse. India probably got over-confident but credit has to be given to England for taking the lifeline that Dravid gave them

— Geoffrey Boycott (The Daily Telegraph)

• The Indian batting has been like a closing down sale ’everything going cheap!’ The beneficiary has been Matthew Hoggard, with 13 wickets in the series. The Hoggard-neurosis reached acute levels in Mumbai when they elected to field, apprehensive of what he might do on a first-day pitch with a hint of moisture

— Simon Hughes (The Daily Telegraph)

• India, as every rational observer knew, had handed England a huge advantage by fielding first on Saturday. The red-brown pitch duly took spin on the last day and allowed Shaun Udal, four days after his 37th birthday and in his 17th year as a first class cricketer, to enjoy a Test analysis of four for 14 that he will cherish for life

— Christopher Martin-Jenkins (The Times)