Anderson ensures England take early command

Fans of both sides descended on St John’s Wood in their droves, queuing for a mile around the block as they snapped up the 20,000 cut-price tickets on offer.

And Anderson ensured they saw a 196-run home win, returning 5-65 and accounting for all three of the tourists’ star batsmen in a total of 261 all out.

The Lancashire seamer dismissed Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman but it was the wicket of Tendulkar – who was hoping to register an unprecedented hundredth international hundred at the home of cricket – that put the icing on the cake.

His efforts, combined with 3-57 from the revitalised Stuart Broad, put England 1-0 up in a four-match series that will see them leapfrog India as the top side in the world if they win by two matches or more.

With India resuming on 80-1, Anderson found Laxman’s edge with the last ball of the second over but the ball flew safe into the large gap between second slip and gully.

The bowler looked frustrated at the lack of catchers and, with so many runs in hand, his ire seemed justified.

Chris Tremlett sent down a superb over to first-innings centurion Dravid, beating him twice on the outside edge and forcing a bat-pad chance that Ian Bell narrowly failed to grasp.

Anderson made the breakthrough in the eighth over, tempting the usually cautious Dravid into offering the bat at one outside the off stump. The ball did just enough to clip the edge and Matt Prior took a simple catch to see off the man nicknamed ‘The Wall’ because of his obduracy.

Umpire Billy Bowden then found himself in the thick of things, turning down huge appeals, first for lbw against Gautam Gambhir and next for caught behind against Laxman.

Replays indicated the first decision was sound but the ‘snickometer’ – which cannot be used in DRS referrals – appeared to back Broad’s decision to review the second.

Andrew Strauss opted for some defensive fields but Laxman helped the England captain by turning an innocuous Anderson bouncer straight to Bell at mid-wicket for 56.

Graeme Swann extracted Gambhir leg before in the following over, bringing Tendulkar to the crease for his second enormous ovation of the game.

Anderson almost wrecked the script straight away when he speared one through Tendulkar’s gate first up. Tendulkar had 11 when Broad beat his bat again, rapping him on the front pad with a fine ball. England appealed raucously but Bowden was again unmoved.

With no recourse to DRS for lbw decisions due to Indian reluctance the match continued, only for replays to show the 38-year-old was extremely fortunate to survive.

He has rarely been affected by pressure in his illustrious career but looked unusually tentative, defeated again by Broad and then by Tremlett.

India passed 150 but with the chase abandoned, runs were a secondary concern.

Suresh Raina moved safely to 20 but Tendulkar was blocking and leaving everything. He eventually turned Swann away for one after a sequence of 38 dot balls.

It was to be his last scoring shot, with Anderson bringing an end to an anti-climactic knock.

Tendulkar was dropped by Strauss at first slip attempting to hide the bat but Anderson returned two balls later to pin him plumb in front of the stumps.

This time there was no reprieve.

At 165-5 England sensed blood and Prior, whose wonderful 103no on Sunday gave his side such breathing space, was desperately close to stumping Raina six balls later.

With six overs to go before the new ball, Strauss put on part-timers Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen and Raina cashed in to creep to his half-century before tea.

The final equation left England with 44 overs to collect the five remaining scalps in an extended final session. Dhoni’s concentration broke when he flashed wildly at Tremlett and the captain was gone soon after for 16 as the Surrey seamer shaded one away and took the outside edge.

Broad was hugely unfortunate not to add a wicket in his 18th over, Eoin Morgan grassing a sitter at point to give Harbhajan Singh a life. Raina’s luck was also in as Bowden’s poor day continued, the Kiwi umpire turning down a clear lbw to draw a far from subtle reaction from Broad.

Harbhajan (12) fell to a characteristically wild shot to hand Anderson his fourth wicket, before Broad rearranged Praveen Kumar’s stumps after a nine-ball stay.

Anderson ensured a new entry on the famous honours board by ending Raina’s brave resistance for 78 and Broad finally persuaded Bowden to raise his finger to see off Ishant Sharma and spark manic celebrations.