LONDON: India ended 21 years of agonizing wait for its first Test series win in England but the feat lost some of its gloss with the beleaguered hosts escaping with a draw in the final encounter of the three-match cricket series here.

Chasing 500 for an improbable win, England could not re-write history but they at least showed enough guts and gumption to bat out the entire final day and deny India a 2-0 win in the series. The hosts, in their second innings, were 369 for 6 at stumps with Matt Prior (12 no) and Ryan Sidebottom (three no) in the middle, leaving India 4-wicket away from a win. Kevin Pietersen topscored for the hosts with 101, while Ian Bell (62) played a gutsy knock down the order.

The series defeat, however, snapped England's glorious run of 11 unbeaten home series. After salvaging a lucky draw in the first Test at Lord's, India comprehensively beat the hosts at Trent Bridge to go 1-0 up in the series and then dominated major part of the final Test here at the Oval only to let the hosts off the hook and settle for a draw.

Though Rahul Dravid would be happy to have led the side to its first Test series win on British soil since 1986, his decision not to enforce a follow-on despite a mammoth first innings lead of 319 would The maverick batsman curbed his attacking nature and mixed caution with aggression.

After Michael Vaughan's exit, he found an able ally in Paul Collingwood (40) who was hanging around till S Sreesanth trapped him with the first delivery after the new ball was taken. Pietersen came to the wicket after India had removed both the England openers and he got off the mark courtesy a full toss from Anil Kumble that he drove past the bowler to the fence before playing an excellent drive off the spinner.

After losing Vaughan soon after lunch, Pietersen thrived in the company of Collingwood as the pair had to deal with vicious turning deliveries from Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar on a wearing pitch. The Indian fielders too contributed to the home team's cause with Dravid dropping Vaughan early on off Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni letting off Collingwood on 13 off an arm ball from Tendulkar. Pietersen then began to take charge taking two fours off a Zaheer Khan over, driving powerfully through the off side.

Collingwood gave him fine support sending Tendulkar to the boundary twice in an over cutting him behind point. Pietersen completed his century in 213 minutes off 155 balls striking 18 fours but went for an expansive drive four balls later only to perish at first slip off Sreesanth.

Bell and Prior frustrated the Indian attack with a 74-run stand before Bell was caught plumb in front by Kumble after playing a 62-ball knock of 67, which reignited India's hopes for a victory for a while. Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 56 without loss, England knew too well that getting another 444 was a task well beyond them.

Accordingly, both their openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook did well put their heads down and tried to stay at the wicket for long. With both Zaheer and S Sreesanth bowling a tight spell under cloudy conditions, they played and missed a couple of times but were lucky not to get an edge.

Strauss pulled Zaheer to midwicket and straight drove Sreesanth to the boundary to show his positive intent. India finally made the first breakthrough in the 12th over of the day when R P Singh removed Strauss in his very first over edging an away swinger to VVS Laxman at second slip. Strauss made 32 in 140 minutes off 113 balls wit six fours.

Three overs later, Kumble came to the party removing Cook in a well-planed dismissal. He dropped one on the rough to the left-hander and Cook played it straight to leg slip where Laxman was specially placed for that catch. Cook made 43 in 154 minutes.

He faced 84 balls and hit five fours. Vaughan had a lucky escape early in his innings when David dropped him at first slip off Kumble when he was on 18. The England captain went on to add 66 runs for the third wicket with Kevin Pietersen in 26.3 overs before falling to Sreesanth in the afternoon session. He made 42 in 76 minutes, facing 95 balls which included five fours.