Kevin Pietersen plays through pain as England lose but win respect

England's captain, Kevin Pietersen, revealed that he played the first Test with a fractured rib as he struggled to come to terms with an extraordinary India victory inspired by one of the great innings of Sachin Tendulkar's celebrated career.

Tendulkar struck the winning runs to secure India's six-wicket victory and his 41st Test century as England, seemingly impregnable after setting a target of 387 at the Chidambaram Stadium, lost by six wickets with roughly an hour's daylight remaining on the final day.

Pietersen said England's decision to return to India in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks meant they could accept their defeat with pride.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow but we need to be really proud of the fact that we played Test match cricket over the past five days," he said. "The tragedy of Mumbai was not in the script and for them to come out and play Test cricket was special.

"Seventy per cent of the Test was ours. But who can write Tendulkar's scripts any better? He made a sensational hundred. [Virender] Sehwag started India's innings off but, if we had got Sachin out early, who knows what would have happened?"

Tendulkar dedicated his hundred to those who had suffered loss in the terrorist attack and called England's decision to fulfil the Test series "a terrific gesture".

Pietersen was injured before the final one-day international in Cuttack three weeks ago. He admitted to sleepless nights before the Chennai Test as he agonised over whether England should accept security advice that it was safe to return but until yesterday he repeatedly played down the extent of his rib injury.

He plans to play in the second Test, which begins in Mohali on Friday. "I have got a fractured rib," he said. "There are no dramas. I will deal with it. I don't like injections. I will just take painkillers."

He is determined to play in Mohali to hold together the spirit of an England squad which was badly jolted by India's successful run chase — the highest in Test history on the sub-continent.

Pietersen's admission that he had "sore ribs" was overshadowed after the Cuttack one-day international as Andrew Flintoff jarred his ankle, which has had four operations.