India had their chances, they even had the first-innings lead, but fell 60 runs short in the end in the fourth Test in Southampton to concede the series to England.
Chasing 245, India had a terrible start, slipping to 22-3. But Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane scored half-centuries to balance the scales somewhat before the Indian captain was dismissed for 58.
It was Moeen Ali’s first wicket of the innings, and he struck three more times to take his tally for the game to nine wickets and bag the Player of the Match award as England went 3-1 up in the five-Test series with one to play.
Earlier this year, India fought hard but went down 2-1 in South Africa, and the England series has also gone away from them now. Still the No.1 Test team, India have been near unbeatable at home of late, but good performances haven’t always translated to results when on tour.
“I don’t think we need to prove to anyone that we have the ability. Not many teams come close to us at home. But to make the home sides earn victories against us, that’s a huge boost for us,” he said.
“As a group, we need to be more relentless, more expressive and more fearless. Especially at the start of a series. Those things we’ll have to talk about, how you begin well in a series and not have to fight back again and again,” said Kohli.
“We can look at the scoreboard and say we were only 30 runs away or 50 runs away, but we have to recognise that when we are in the midst of the situation, and not later. We know that we have played good cricket, but we cannot say again and again to ourselves that we have competed. When you come so close, there is an art of crossing the line as well, which we will have to learn.”
