England's very own ring of fire burnt India on the final day at the Wankhede Stadium to seal a share of the Test series.

Andrew Flintoff's patched-up side won by 212 runs after one-and-a-quarter hours of mayhem inspired by a lunchtime singsong.

The match was in the balance with home captain Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar at the crease but a rendition of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire in the dressing room proved the trailblazer to success.

Flintoff, the unanimous choice for both man-of-the-match and man-of-the-series awards, prised out opposing captain Rahul Dravid with the third ball of the afternoon to begin an incredible collapse of seven wickets for 25 runs.

''There is a lot of drivel that gets played on the iPod we have wired up in the dressing room,'' said Flintoff.

''This is the one song the lads enjoy when we need a lift and we went out after lunch with a spring in our step.

''Once we got two wickets in two overs I thought we had a definite chance, especially the way Shaun Udal was bowling. It was spinning and bouncing and it looked as if he was going to take a wicket every ball.''

India's lower order only promoted the observation by hacking wildly at off-spinner Udal, who finished with four for 14.

Even when England missed a chance to dismiss Mahendra Dhoni as Monty Panesar lost a skier in the sun, the ineptitude of the batting offered a similar opportunity three balls later which was gleefully grabbed.

The scenes of jubilation when Matthew Hoggard held his second catch at deep square-leg to end India's innings for a round 100 were reminiscent of the joy at the Oval last September when Australia surrendered the Ashes.

Only this time the cast was very different.

It was England's first victory in India since 1984-85 and the scale of the achievement was put into further perspective by the fact five of the first-choice team were back in the United Kingdom and one of the replacements, Alastair Cook, went down with a stomach bug on the eve of the contest.

Flintoff said: ''To see the faces of the lads at the end, all in the huddle, shaking hands, was the highlight for me.

''They have worked so hard for this, it has been a hard trip and winning here is tricky work, especially against a side of superstars.

''Last summer was obviously huge, then to come out to India with all the problems before we started, bringing in young lads for debuts, means this is definitely up there with it.

''It just shows English cricket is strong, we have some good players coming through who came into the side and came up to the mark.

''They fit in well, are very talented and have a bit about them. The lads can be very proud of what they have done.''

But for a poor fourth evening in the second Test at Mohali, when the tourists lost half the side, the 1-1 draw, which maintains England's second place in the world Test rankings, may have been bettered.

They were dealt a helping hand on the first morning here when Dravid surprisingly decided to field.

''For me to see the coin come down and say 'we'll bowl first' the grass would have to be knee-deep,'' said Flintoff.

''I was pleased we were batting first as it was our gameplan.''

Andrew Strauss' hundred and 88 from debutant Owais Shah laid the platform, and when Flintoff completed his fourth consecutive half-century in the second innings the finishing line was in sight.

Dravid said: ''In hindsight when you look at the result of the game definitely I would have changed the decision I made right up front.

''We played five bowlers with three seamers and we thought there'd be a bit more bounce and seam movement early in the first session.

''We thought we could get a few wickets there, restrict them to a low score and then bat big in the first innings to set the game up.

''But once they'd got to 272 for three on the first day we knew we were on the back foot there on in.''

The home supporters in the 30,000 crowd let their feelings on a humbling by an England shadow side known at the presentation ceremony when they called for the reinstatement of former captain Sourav Ganguly.

It was not the kind of ending Dravid might have expected in his 100th Test but he gave Flintoff, who is returning home for a few days to see his two-week-old son Corey for the first time, a tributary send-off when he said: ''He was phenomenal and truly deserved the man-of-the-series award.

''Every time he went out he scored runs, was their best bowler on view right through the series and did a great job as a captain.

''He's truly shown why he is the greatest all-rounder in the world at the moment.''