By Brian Thomas
The weather on day 5 at the oval in London today was bright and sunny. 20 degrees Celsius. Being a Monday the venue had a big crowd in to watch the final day of an enthralling Test Match with India defending 368 runs, whilst England in pursuit of 291 to go up in the 5 match series. It was great to see the spectators minus their cardigans attired in Tee shirts and short sleeved bush shirts. Even former England Fast bowler Gladstone Small was spotted in an orange tee shirt.
Rory Burna and Haseeb Hameed walk in greeted by sunlight with England on 77 for no loss over night. Burns on 31and Haeed on 43. India would have prayed for cloud cover as the Duke did nothing off the pitch and nothing off the air.
Burns and Hameed motored along when suddenly, a jack pot came India’s way. Thakur was introduced for the first time in this innings and that too in the 41st over. Burns batting on 50 got a jaffer the call in cricket terminology. He did nothing wrong played the right line didn’t follow the ball , but a late swing from nowhere , took the edge and Rishab Pant gleefully said thank you very much India get the break through England 100 for 1 wicket.
Hasheeb Hameed was not easy on the eye. Very defensive in his approach, never drove the ball even to pitched up deliveries, just simple nudges , hence India kept smelling wicket number 2. Their dreams were shattered when Mohd Siraj dropped the English opener at mid on a regulation sitter with England on 112. Opportunity goes a begging that deprived Jadeja of his first scalp for the day.
Dawid Malan the left hander looked uneasy off Jadeja who bowled into the left handers rough on the off stump with 3 men in catching position. He was given a life thanks to an umpires call on a LBW shout. However Hasheeb Hameed did him no favour when he called him for an impossible run , England lost Malan for 5 Run out , the worst dismissal in Test cricket with the Score on 120 for 2 wickets
England took lunch on 131 for 2 , with Joe Root on 6 , and Haseeb Hameed on 62.
The post lunch session started with England looking to bat the day out on 131 for 2 wickets, with Joe Root and Hameed at the wickets. The two right handers added 21 runs , then Jadeja disturbed the timber of Hasheeb Hameed, as he exposed his off stump and pushed at a straight delivery, to give India their 3rd wicket on 141. Hameed batted well for his 66, but was too defensive.
Olli Pope joind his skipper, the seam bowlers were struggling for the last two days on the oval pitch because the ball was going gun straight with no lateral movement or swing. All of a sudden the ball started to reverse, and an unplayable reverse swing from Jasprit Bumrah had Oliver Pope neck and crop , bowled for 2 runs with an in dipper with England on 146 for 2 wickets.
Johnny Bairstow became Bumrah’s second bunny for the day reverse swinging Yorker bingo gone without disturbing the scorers England lose their 5th on the same score on 146. Moheen Ali and his struggle against Jadeja seems to go out of fashion. Undone by a shape turner that pitched on the dirt outside his off stump and carried into the safe hands of substitute fielder Suriyakumar at forward short leg. Down the barrel go England 147 for 6 wickets.
A bit of repair work done on the English dent by Root and Woakes, as they put on 35 runs. Kohli did have the new ball option.
He wisely declined it based on the fact the first new ball got the Englishman 100 runs for one wicket , and the older ball got India 6 wickets for 49 runs. The old ball was reversing , India scalped 4 wickets for 19 runs in just 14 Overs , it was good reading for Kohli.
Then came the big blow when Joe Root played on a Thakur delivery batting on 35 , when he tried to open the face of his bat and guide an outside the off stump delivery that took the inside edge of his bat and crash landed on his stumps.
With England on 182 for 7 wickets , in last over before the tea break Woakes was caught by K. L. Rahul for 18 and England face the inevitable on 193 for 8 at Tea. Bumrah incidentally reached a mile stone by being the quickest Indian seamer to reach 100 wickets in 24 Matches beating the ever green Kapil Dev who got to this feat in 25 Matches.
It was a daunting effort for England to save this Test. They were bowled out for 210 runs shortly after tea , and India go up 2 games to 1 in the 5 match series.
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