England’s shot selection in subcontinent conditions was poor. On wickets which are slow and have low bounce, the thumb rule is to play straight. But England batsmen, even before they got set, tried to improvise. They were too eager to play the sweep to spinners and were trapped in front. Except for Pietersen and Trott, none of the other England batsmen showed the inclination to hang in there and pick up the ones and twos. They tried too hard to hit out whenever they failed to pierce the infield. India’s brilliant fielding inside the circle added in building up the pressure.

In bowling, only Steve Finn was impressive but he lacked support from the other end. Tim Bresnan was guilty of bowling short and gave a lot of width.