England beat India to become world number one Test side

James Anderson produced a superb spell at the start of day four

England demolished India at a delirious Edgbaston to usurp the tourists at the top of the world Test rankings.

James Anderson set England on the victory trail by removing Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman inside the first hour in a brilliant spell of swing bowling.

Captain MS Dhoni and Praveen Kumar delayed the inevitable with an entertaining partnership of 75 but Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan mopped up the tail as India were bundled out for 244.

England's victory by an innings and 242 runs gives them an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series and provides emphatic confirmation of their new status as the best team in the world.

India began the day in a hopeless position, still 486 runs adrift of making England bat again after the home side had racked up 710-7 in reply the tourists' 224.

And their predicament worsened when Anderson's first ball of the day was angled across Gambhir, caught his outside edge and was snaffled by Graeme Swann stooping low to his left at second slip.

Dravid played at a full length delivery that moved away off the seam and was caught behind, although replays showed the bat hit his foot and not the ball.

Laxman was out to an almost identical delivery, the ball brilliantly angled in to the batsman and moving away off the seam before taking the outside of the blade.

Suresh Raina looked to be getting on top of Swann as he carted him for two fours in a row, but England's off-spinner responded by firing down a flatter delivery that trapped the left-hander on his crease.

At the other end, Sachin Tendulkar remained unflustered through the mayhem, timing the ball to perfection with eight boundaries and raising the prospect of a defiant century.

But on 40 not out, disaster struck as the Little Master was run out backing up a Dhoni drive. Swann got his hand to the ball and deflected it on to the stumps, with replays confirming the bails were off just before Tendulkar was able to ground his bat.

With the crowd - hundreds of them in fancy dress - singing and dancing in the stands, Kumar got into the party mood by smashing Swann into the stands three times.

He cracked 40 off 18 balls before one slog too many picked out Ravi Bopara at cover to leave India eight down.

Ishant Sharma was lbw to Broad and Tim Bresnan completed the job when last man Sreesanth was caught in the gully.

Andrew Strauss and his team united in a joyous huddle in the middle before shaking hands with the entire India team as they left the field.

After basking in the glory of third straight thrashing of India, England's minds will turn to inflicting a series whitewash when the fourth Test starts at the Oval on Thursday.

Listen to Jonathan Agnew and Geoff Boycott's review of the final day's play on the TMS podcast.