Scoreboard and stats I Mike Atherton's analysis I Tendulkar: a worthy winner

A very comfortable victory for India in the end. What are your thoughts on the result?

Yes it was comfortable, much more comfortable than anybody expected. India won with six wickets in hand and 20 overs to spare and looked in almost total control for much of the day. It's very disappointing end from England's perspective, but it was an epic occasion capped by Sachin Tendulkar, a great player playing a great innings to win the match.

Was it Indian brilliance that won this match, or did England let them off the hook?

I don't think England helped themselves. I don't think they bowled as well as they might have done although I personally feel that much of the damage was done yesterday, with the loss of momentum after lunch.

Virender Sehwag set up the day really, without that innings India could not have won the game. But on top of that, England didn't bowl exceptionally well today, they didn't bowl badly but just not well enough to cause India real problems.

In the field, perhaps we were a bit tactically stereotyped and a bit one dimensional. But that's not to take anything away from India's performance, Tendulkar's innings was very special and you have to imagine that Yuvraj has done enough to establish himself as a Test match player.

Is it fair to criticise Kevin Pietersen for allowing this match to slip?

Let's remember that he's only captaining in his second Test match and he's hardly taken charge of any team before. So he won't have come across a situation like this or played in conditions like this. We just don't get crumbly pitches in England and he won't have played on them growing up in South Africa either. So the situation was totally new to him and any criticism has to be tempered with that knowledge.

Having said that, I felt we were a bit defensive and a bit protective of the boundaries from the start of the day and that reflected the fearful attitude that we saw in England's play yesterday. I think we would have been better served by trying to soak up the singles and close India down. I think in the end we just made it a little bit easier for Tendulkar to work the ball around. We could have done things differently.

Can England recover from this in time for the start of the second Test on Friday?

It's going to be difficult. This was game they dominated and they have been trounced. Psychologically that's a very damaging thing to come back from.

Mohali might suit them slightly better, because it's cooler up there and the bowlers might have more joy. Stuart Broad is fit so he comes into the equation. I don't know if the selectors will make changes and it's very difficult immediately after a Test match to clear your head and think about it.

James Anderson and Steve Harmison were disappointing as were the spinners, although Graeme Swann was in his first Test so you can't expect too much. Adil Rashid is here, but we're told he's here for only the experience, so you wouldn't expect him to play. But England will get up there, assess the conditions and see where they are before making any decision. Make no mistake, this will be a bitter pill to swallow.