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England vs. India: Cricket test series, 1984-2013
The Times of India

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India vs England: It all started at Birmingham in 1983

Boria Majumdar, TNN | Jun 23, 2013

The Times of India

India versus England in England is always a very special contest. And if it is at Edgbaston, there's always an extra buzz to it. With a huge Indian diaspora making Birmingham home, Indian supporters may well outnumber England fans on their own turf and, in many ways, nullify the home advantage that England would otherwise have banked on.

This is not mere conjecture. It has happened in the past, on June 14, 2009. India versus England in the second edition of the World T20. The setting, though, was Lord's and it was awash in a sea of light blue. It did not stop there. Just as Paul Collingwood's side came out for a pre-match warm-up at the Nursery Ground, they were booed and jeered by a section of the crowd.

Imagine. England, the home team, booed at the home of English cricket. With something similar, if not a more aggressive version of this behaviour expected this time round in Birmingham, it is time to look closely at the highlights of one of world cricket's most intense ODI rivalries, especially on English soil. Though India played their first Test in England in 1932, it was only from 1971 that the real India-England rivalry began, with the lowly regarded Indians winning a Test series in England, beating them at the Oval.

The rivalry has since grown in intensity and British Asian support for India clearly rankles with the locals. For this lot, British Asian support for India is unequivocally an act of 'betrayal'. But for the Indians in the UK supporting India in cricket is only natural. Here's a look at the matches that built this rivalry...

1983: The miracle at Birmingham

Even the most ardent Indian fan saw it as only a dream. Some dreams, however, do come true. It had been hard for English cricket writers to take the Indian team seriously. India's victory over Australia at Chelmsford in the last group game was considered a marvellous piece of luck for England, giving them a virtual 'passport' to the final. Or so declared John Thickness in the Standard. Similarly, for Mathew Engel of the Guardian, there was no rational explanation for India's triumph over Australia. However, sometimes rationale gives way to romance and India, 40-1 rank outsiders with the bookmakers pre-tournament, scripted a fairytale, thrashing England on June 22 with 32 balls to spare, thus entering the final of the World Cup. The Pomms had been crushed and Kapil Dev's team was on the verge of creating history.

1986: Time to flex muscles

Never before had an Indian team acquitted itself better than Kapil Dev's men; it beat England in both the Texaco One-day and the Cornhill five-day series. This was one of Indian cricket's best overseas victories of all time, comparable only in importance to what had been achieved in 1971. Though the One-day series was tied 1-1, India won the trophy by virtue of a faster scoring rate.

1990: Two big wins

Though India lost the Test series 0-1, Azhar's team won the ODI series 2-0. In the second match, England did well to post a target of 281 with Robin Smith scoring a hundred. At one point, India needed 145 off 20 overs to close out the match. Tendulkar played a good cameo, scoring a quick 31 of 26 balls and was dismissed with the score on 249 with just 33 more to win. India won the match, with Azhar remaining unbeaten on 63, and closed out the series 2-0.

1999: A World Cup encounter

Despite the team failing to deliver in the Super Six, three snapshots from the tournament dazzle to this day. One, Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 140 against Kenya just days after his father's demise kept India alive after two straight losses. The second was the record partnership of 318 runs between Sourav Ganguly (183) and Rahul Dravid (145) against Sri Lanka, which saw India post their then-highest ODI total. And the third was the victory over England at Edgbaston, scripted by Ganguly and Kumble in a match played over two days. Ganguly, commentating this time around, remembers the match fondly and is hoping for an encore in the final.

2002: Kaif-Yuvraj show

The new millennium brought new promise and, in the summer of 2002 in England, Team India witnessed a new resurgence. Led by one of their best captains in Sourav Ganguly, two of their best all-time batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, two world-class spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh and a couple of fast bowlers who could exploit the conditions, India were suddenly a team to reckon with. However, the stars of the NatWest final were two youngsters, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif, who from a hopeless position of 146-5 propelled the team to victory chasing down an imposing English total of 325. The match will forever be remembered for Ganguly's frenetic celebrations on the Lord's balcony, something he is slightly embarrassed about these days.

2007: India edged out 3-4

Indian cricket got back on track in the summer of 2007 when the Indians registered a rare away-series win in England. Zaheer Khan was the new spearhead and had established himself as one of the best exponents of swing bowling. This was surely Rahul Dravid's high point as the captain of the Indian team. The One-day series was also closely fought with the Indians losing out 3-4 in the end. Down 1-3, the Indians came back really well and levelled the series 3-3 before some dubious decisions in the final One-dayer cost them the series.

2011: The humbling and after

The horror of the four straight Test match defeats on English soil began with the mauling at Lord's in July 2011. Zaheer Khan hobbling back with a bad hamstring on the first day of the tour was a sign of things to come. Skipper Dhoni summed it up nicely when he said everything that could go wrong went wrong in England in July-August 2011. India went on to lose the ODI series too 0-3 and went back without winning a single match on English soil.