India v England, 2005-06

At Vadodara, February 23, 24, 25, 2006. Indian Board President's XI won by eight wickets. Toss: England XI.

England's final warm-up was deeply demoralising. The injury list grew so long that assistant coach Matthew Maynard had to field as a substitute, and the batting crumbled twice. Pietersen, who led the first-innings recovery from a shaky start, retired with severe back pains, and played no further part. And afterwards, the acting-captain Trescothick suddenly flew home for "personal reasons". The Indian Test squad announced on the first day included three of the President's XI, but the game was dominated by two who were omitted: strike bowler Munaf Patel took ten wickets, six of them bowled, and opening batsman Gautam Gambhir reached a century. Patel wrapped up England's first innings with three in ten balls, and the second with three in nine. England's most encouraging phase came when they finally dismissed Gambhir, and Flintoff and Harmison ran through the rest of the batting with the new ball. Even so, they trailed by 104, and their most determined second-innings performance came from the night-watchman, Hoggard, who batted throughout the last morning. Gambhir saw his side past a 55-run target with 14 overs to spare.