Images: Clinical England thrash India by 319 runs

A spineless India crashed to one of their heaviest defeats in terms of runs in the lop-sided second Test against England, who have now become serious contenders for the world No 1 tag by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

- Scorecard Match Report

Set a daunting target of 478 for victory, India's famed batting line-up collapsed like a deck of cards, bundled out for 158, and lost the game by a humiliating 319 runs, with an entire day to spare.

The Indians have themselves to blame for the drubbing, as they allowed the hosts to wriggle out of a tight situation on the opening day and then frittered away a good position while batting in the first innings.

From then, the visitors could never really get back into the game.

Only Sachin Tendulkar provided some resistance with a gritty 56 that came of 86 deliveries, while most of the other batsmen sucumbed tamely on a Trent Bridge track that still appeared good for batting.

Apart from Tendulkar, no other Indian top-order batsmen could manage double digit scores, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh being the second best run-getter with a quickfire 46 that came off 44 balls.

Tim Bresnan, who struck a valuable 90 with the bat in the second innings, turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief for England with figures of five for 48, while James Anderson (3/51) and Stuart Broad (2/30) provided able support from the other end.

Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 441 for six, England added another 103 runs from 19.2 overs before being bowled for a massive 544.

After the initial exploits of Ian Bell (159), Kevin Pietersen (63) and Eoin Morgan (70), the seventh wicket pair of Matt Prior (73) and Bresnan (90) added salt to India's injury by stitching 119 runs off just 20 overs.

Praveen Kumar was the most succesful Indian bowler in England's second essay, scalping four wickets for 124 runs, while Ishant Sharma (2/131) and S Sreesanth (2/135) snared two wickets apiece.

England now need to maintain their 2-0 margin in the series to displace India as the number one Test team, while India will have to reduce the margin to less than two to maintain their number one status.

The ICC's Test rankings will be announced after the series.

India's biggest defeat in terms of runs had come against Australia at Nagpur in 2004-2005, when they lost by a huge margin of 342 runs.

However, against England this was India's biggest defeat in terms of runs, surpassing 247-run loss at Lord's in 1990.

India had earlier lost the first Test at Lord's by a huge 196 runs.

India's chase started off on a horrible note, losing first innings centurion Rahul Dravid before lunch with the scoreboard reading just eight.

But it was the post-lunch session that tormented India, as the visitors lost as many as five batsmen -- VVS Laxman (4), Abhinav Mukund (3), Suresh Raina (1), Yuvraj Singh (8) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (0) to find themselves in a tight corner.

Bresnan, who scored a valuable 90 with the bat, was the wrecker-in-chief for England, taking as many as four wickets for just 17 runs from his eight overs.

Laxman was the first to depart in the post-lunch session, bowled by Anderson for four, leaving India tottering at 13 for two.

Young Mukund, yet again, failed to capitalise on the life he got off the first ball of the innings, and spooned a rising Bresnan delivery to Andrew Strauss in the slips.

Next man in, Raina too was greeted with short pitched stuff and the England's bowlers ploy worked when he top-edged a pull off Bresnan to substitute Scott Elstone at deep fine leg.

Yuvraj Singh also had a torrid time at the crease, hopping and popping to short-pitched deliveries.

Yuvraj's struggle at the crease came to an end soon when he failed to negotiate a Bresnan bouncer, only to give a straight-forward catch to Alistair Cook in the slip cordon.

As if that was not enough, off the very next delivery, Bresnan trapped India skipper Dhoni plumb in front of the wicket to take England closer to a victory.

Dhoni did very little to justify his reputation, as he fell for a duck, trying to leave a Bresnan delivery that came in after pitching and struck him on the pads.

No sooner the ball hit Dhoni's pads than umpire Asad Rauf had no hesitation in raising his finger, a decision later backed by television replays.

All the while, Tendulkar watched his teammates departing from the other end in sheer exasperation. He was a picture of determination from the time he arrived at the crease and hit his first four off the 15th ball he faced.

But any hopes of India's turnaround vanished when Tendulkar departed in the 37th over, lbw to Anderson.

He batted for 113 minutes and hit eight boundaries en route his 86-ball innings.

Incidentally, it was the seventh time in Test matches that Anderson dismissed Tendulkar.

Retired Sri Lankan spin wizard Muthiah Muralitharan is the only bowler in the history of the game so far to have taken the champion batsman's wicket eight times.