MOEEN ALI and James Anderson led England’s surge to a series-levelling 266-run victory with more than two sessions to spare in the third Investec Test against India.

Anderson set aside any concerns over the disciplinary proceedings he must face this morning, over his spat with Ravindra Jadeja in the first Test at Trent Bridge, to provide England with the early impetus in the final strait here.

The seamer finished with match figures of seven for 77, after taking the first two of six wickets England still needed to make it 1-1 with two to play.

Moeen (six for 67) is increasingly belying his billing as a mere part-time offspinner after taking his series tally to 15 victims, and match haul to eight with his maiden five-wicket return here.

Only Ajinkya Rahane’s defiant and unbeaten 52 held England up for long, after India resumed on 112 for four still in notional pursuit of a world-record 445 but were bowled out before lunch for 178.

Anderson had England up and running with only his third delivery, Rohit Sharma apparently surprised to be given out caught-behind pushing forward at a delivery he might perhaps have left.

He had to go and India did not reopen their account either until well into the fourth over.

There was no doubt about Anderson’s next success, another caughtbehind and Jos Buttler’s sixth on debut, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni got a much more obvious edge on some full-length swing to also go for six.

After a 13-over wait, it was Moeen who got Jadeja – yorking himself as the off-spinner drifting one into him to hit the bottom of off-stump.

For good measure, Mooen then saw off Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a duck, his second wicket in the same over, with an inside-edge on to his pad and into the hands of gully.

Moeen then made short work of Mohammed Shami, clean-bowling him and soon afterwards number 11 Pankaj Singh to end the match.

Scoreboard

England v India
At The Ageas Bowl.
Overnight: England 569-7 dec (I R Bell
167, G S Ballance 156, A N Cook95, J C
Buttler 85) and 205-4 dec (A N Cook 70
no, J E Root 56). India 330(A M Rahane
54, M S Dhoni 50; J M Anderson 5-53)
and 112-4

India Second Innings
A M Rahane not out...............................52
R G Sharma c Buttler b Anderson ....... 6
M S Dhoni c Buttler b Anderson .......... 6
R A Jadeja b M M Ali ............................. 15
B Kumar c Anderson b M M Ali............. 0
Shami b M M Ali ...................................... 0
P Singh b M M Ali .................................... 9
Extras (b4 lb6 w1) ............... 11
Total (66.4 overs)...............178
Fall: 1-26 2-29 3-80 4-89 5-112 6-120
7-152 8-152 9-154
Bowling: Anderson 14-5-24-2. Broad 13-
6-22-0. Woakes 11-3-23-0. M M Ali 20.4-
4-67-6. Jordan 5-0-22-0. Root 2-0-5-1.
Ballance 1-0-5-0.

England beat India by 266 runs