By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent at Headingley

India thoroughly deserved their emphatic victory, which was inevitable the moment Sourav Ganguly declared their innings closed on 628 for eight.

Listen to Agnew's close of play

England, at least, made them work harder for their win in the second innings with Nasser Hussain leading the way, but once the breach was made, there was nothing to deny the visitors.

So everything is now set up for a fascinating finale at the Oval.

The force is very much with India, having earned a draw at Trent Bridge and winning here to level the series, and the pressure is on the England management to restore the confidence of the bowlers, in particular.

Kumble was England's final day destroyer

Hussain made much of the need for his team to accept "collective responsibility".

But there is no escaping the fact that both here and at Trent Bridge, his bowlers failed to take advantage of conditions that should have enabled them to win both matches.

The problem is compounded by the likely absence of Flintoff.

He needs to have an operation on his groin with enough recovery time to enable him to tour Australia.

And although replacements are thin on the ground and the Oval is now a critical match, Flintoff will be a key member of the Ashes party and needs to have this operation now.

All-round excellence

India batted superbly, and their bowlers supported each other in helpful conditions.

Spinners Kumble and Harbhajan could well cause England a great deal of difficulty at the Oval.

There will be the temptation, though, to strengthen their seam attack by dropping Parthiv Patel, asking Rahul Dravid to keep wicket and bring in Ashish Nehra.

Dravid was the right choice as Man of the Match

This is because there must be a worry that Ajit Agarkar and, particularly, Sanjay Bangar will be less threatening on the benign surface they will face at the Oval.

The drawback, of course, is that Dravid is little more than a 'stopper' behind the stumps and there must be a chance that his batting might be affected by the strain of keeping wicket.

Given that his contribution at Headingley was instrumental in India's victory, anything that destabilises their batting should be avoided.

Whatever happens, the match will be eagerly anticipated, and both teams face difficult decisions over the coming days.