India await another test

Even as they bask in the glory of the Trent Bridge win, Rahul Dravid and Co. seem focused to break their away-series jinx at Oval

NOTTINGHAM: The Indian team celebrated its remarkable victory over England in the second cricket Test with a quiet dinner at a restaurant close to the team hotel. While the celebrations were in order, the Indians avoided going overboard.

Interestingly, there’s a jinx haunting India in an away series that they are all well aware of and are keen to set the record straight this time.

In the 2003-2004 series in Australia, India upset the hosts in Adelaide only to lose the next Test in Melbourne. Later, in 2004, India won its first-Test ever in Pakistan only to lose the next game in Lahore. And, more recently, having won its first-ever Test in South Africa in Johannesburg early this year, India duly succumbed in the next Test at Durban before losing the series in Cape Town.

“Thanks for reminding me,” joked captain Rahul Dravid, to a query on this Indian jinx. “We have to be consistent. We have to back our good performances by some more good performances. We will celebrate this win, but at the same time, we will keep our mind focused on the final Test at the Oval and on what we need to do there.

“We will be taking a lot of confidence from this game and we will try our best to win the series. We know England will come back hard at us and we expect a tough game.”

Echoing similar views was Sachin Tendulkar who said, “This win was special because it was a total team effort. But now the final Test becomes extremely important. We need to keep the momentum going and believe in ourselves.”

India’s stunning win puts England in a grave danger of losing their first home series since 2001. At the moment, the hosts are sitting proudly on an unbeaten home Test series record stretching back six years to their 2001 defeat by Australia, a sequence that includes 11 successive series.