A victory...well deserved

"This victory will be ranked right up there at the top" said Sachin Tendulkar after India completed a historic series win against England at the Oval. It's no wonder he said that. It was 1986 when India last won a series in England and he was only 13 then. But, it was only after 18 years since the master batsman started his career could he taste the series win on English soil.

Rahul Dravid had mentioned when Indian team left for the tour of England that he has been assigned a job to win a test series in England and one can only say "Job Well Done". It was especially very satisfying after the World Cup debacle not a long time ago.

It all started at Lords, the mecca of Cricket. Rain gods came to the rescue of Indians at Lords. But, we also witnessed Mahendra Singh Dhoni's clear-headedness and ability to adapt to different conditions and why he is an asset to this Indian team.

At Trent Bridge, when English players were busy throwing jelly beans on the cricket pitch, Indian players(barring Sreesanth) were focused on the most important task of winning the test match. It was obvious from the way Tendulkar and Ganguly batted on 2nd and 3rd day and also from the way Zaheer bowled in the second innings. That gave India the 1-0 lead in the series.

Along came Oval and it also brought bad memories of Georgetown in 2001, Melbourne in 2004 and Durban in 2007 where India frittered away the advantage after going 1-0 up in the series.Rahul Dravid won an important toss and decided to bat first. All Indian batsmen batted superbly with all 11 players in double figures. Anil Kumble hit his maiden hundred and India piled up 664 in the first innings. Indian bowlers also bowled very well to restrict England to 330. Then came the all important all-bit controversial decision to not enforce the follow-on. It was understandable from the point of view that Indians wanted to block the last ray of hope for England to win the match and also wanted to make absolutely sure that they hang on to the 1-0 series lead. And something which had not happened for last 21 years happened! A rare series victory for India in England. Although critics can come up with thousand and one reasons why Dravid should have enforced the follow-on, it's still trivial compared to the series win.

This series victory meant something for everybody in this team because it was a collective effort. Unlike the Indian team in the nineties which was heavily dependent on individual performances rather than a team effort. We also saw some personal landmarks being reached.

• Sachin Tendulkar completed 11,000 test runs.
• Anil Kumble hit his maiden century and he also went pass Glenn Mcgrath in the tally of most number of wickets in test matches.
• Zaheer bowled his best spell ever at Trent Bridge.

If we look at history, it all started under Sourav Ganguly's captaincy when India started winning test matches outside sub-continent. They won a test series in West Indies last year and now it's England. Success is a gradual process and one can only say Team India is on the right track. The tipping point may not be far away when this team will travel to Australia in December in all important test series against the world champions.

However, now is the time for this team to enjoy the warmth of success after all the hard work paid off. As Michael Vaughn said in his post-match interview, "Some series wins are far more important".