Men’s International Test Match Series – 5^th Test- Day 5 of 5 at The Kia Oval, Kennington.

India 1^st Innings 224 ao off 69.4 ov Sai Sudharsan 38 off 109, 6 fours, Nair 57 off 109, 8 fours, Washington 26 off 55, 3 fours, Atkinson 5-33, Tongue 3-57, Woakes 1-46.

India 2^nd Innings 396 ao off 88 ov Jaiswal 118 off 164, 14 fours, 2 sixes, Deep 66 off 94, 12 fours, Jadeja 53 off 77, 5 fours,Washington 53 off 46, 4 fours, 4 sixes, Tongue 4-125, Atkinson 3-127, Overton 2-98.

England 1^st Innings 247 ao of 51.2 ov Crawley 64 off 57, 14 fours,Duckett 43 off 38, 5 fours, 2 sixes, Brook 53 off 64, 5 fours, 1 six, Siraj 5-66, Krishna 4-62, Deep 1-80.

England 2^nd Innings 367 ao off 85.1ov Duckett 54 off 83, 6 fours, Root 105 off 152, 12 fours, Brook 111 off 98, 14 fours, 2 sixes, Siraj 5-104, Krishna 4-126, Deep 1-85.

India win by 6 runs

India denied England a record-breaking run chase after they snatched the thrilled by six runs in one of the dramatic conclusions in Test Cricket history. Overnight England were 339-6, needed only 35 run with six wickets in hand to win the match.  Atkinson clobbered Mohammed Siraj for six, Woakes ran a bye to wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, who missed the stumps, in order for Atkinson to pinch the strike. Prasidh Krishna bowled the next over. Woakes was able to run a two, then another vital single off the final ball to leave Atkinson with the strike. Then Atkinson was bowled by Siraj, giving India their narrowest of victory in terms of runs in a test. England were without injured captain Stokes, and Woakes who suffered injury on day one,  the home side had a patched up pace attack as their first-choice spinner Shoaib Bashir is out with a broken finger. Bashir bowled with a broken finger at times, Pant batted with a broken foot, Woakes batted with is dislocated shoulder. England did miss out on a first series win against India since 2018, and their first win against any team in a five-Test series in the same period.

The fifth day of the fifth Test between England and India, began with a huddle,  when Jamie Overton took fours off each of the first two balls of the day, England had almost a quarter of the runs they required to win, It was so near but too far.

Jamie Smith wafted at two deliveries, then edged the third. Overton was struck on the pad, with a slow finger by umpire Kumar Dharmasena.

Josh Tongue who found himself the last line of defence before the stricken Chris Woakes. Tongue had his stumps uprooted by Prasidh Krishna, Woakes who had to run three times between the wickets, his shoulder jolted every step, although he never faced a delivery. Atkinson was bowled attempting to hit the six that would have levelled the scores and won the series for England. Siraj’s  five-wcket haul, his average and strike-rate are better when he is not playing in the shadows of Jasprit Bumrah. India’s two wins in this series came in matches Bumrah did not play.

So the series is level at 2-2, although England feel aggrieved they were denied in the drawn fourth Test at Old Trafford, only if they had caught Ravindra Jadeja on nought in Manchester, or any of the six they dropped in India’s second innings here at the Oval, it might have been different. However, it was highly credible for England to get so close to chasing down 374, what would have been the second highest of all time, and really a missed opportunity for a series win.

Indian captain Shubman Gill said “ It means so much. This was a very hard-fought series. Both teams throwing punches and you could never really predict after day four who was going to win this match”.

England captain Ben Stokes said “It’s been an incredible series- the commitment and energy has been outstanding. We’re bitterly disappointed we couldn’t get the series win but myself being a massive advocate of the game of Test cricket, this series has been an unbelievable advert for it across the world. All the doubters saying it’s dying a death, this series has had the opposite. For us to come out here and try and chase that total down in the way that we did was outstanding. That never say die, never back down attitude we’ve installed in the group nearly paid off for us. We couldn’t quite get over the line”.