England leave India with pride and goodwill

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Regarded locally as the goodwill series because of England's decision to return in the aftermath of the terror attacks on Mumbai, the tourists have earned plaudits wherever they have gone for their refusal to let terrorism halt the cricket.

But as pleased as England have been to help India's recovery from the Mumbai outrage, they also wanted to travel back with something more tangible than just thanks and achieved that on Tuesday by salvaging a draw from the final Test at the PCA Stadium.

Having prevented India from scoring quickly enough to declare earlier during the fourth day, the tourists completed the job when they successfully reached 64 for one with 15 overs remaining after being set an unlikely victory target of 403.

Coming so soon after the heartbreak of defeat on the final day in Chennai after they had dominated most of the Test, it was a display of character which pleased captain Kevin Pietersen even though they slipped to their fifth defeat in the last eight Test series.

"There are a few guys who have done exceptionally well out here," claimed Pietersen.

"It's been a really tough two months for English cricket.

"(There was) that Stanford week, then losing 5-0 in the one-dayers and then being pipped at the post last Monday, but I think the guys have shown a lot of character.

"They've played with smiles on their faces, they've trained hard and they deserve a good break over Christmas now. The results have not gone our way, but it's not been through lack of effort."