India recorded a thrilling victory against England in the fifth and final match of the series. India needed 4 wickets to win on the last day of the fifth Test while England needed 35 runs. In such a situation, Indian bowlers Mohammad Siraj and the famous Krishna won by 6 wickets with a brilliant performance. With this, India tied the series 2-2. Siraj took 5 wickets in the fifth Test while Krishna took 4 wickets.
Before this, after centuries of Harry Brook (111 runs in 98 balls) and Joe Root (105 runs in 152 balls) in the last session of the day, the famous Krishna (three wickets for 109 runs) and Mohammad Siraj (two wickets for 95 runs) brilliant bowling, the last Test of the five-match series between India and England has reached a very exciting turn. Chasing a record 374 runs at the Oval for a 2-1 lead in the series, England have scored 339 runs for six wickets by the end of the fourth day of play on Sunday.
In the last session of the day, the umpires signaled to stop the game after measuring the natural light with a light meter. Shortly after the players left the field, it started raining heavily and the field workers had to cover the pitch with a cover. At this time Jamie Smith was present at the crease scoring two runs while Jamie Overton did not open the account. The umpires announced the end of the day’s play at 6 pm (local time). The Indian bowlers bowled well at the start of the day but Harry Brooke put pressure on them with aggressive batting as soon as he came to the crease.
Brook took advantage of a 19-run partnership with Mohammed Siraj off the ball of Krishna, hitting 14 fours and two sixes in his aggressive innings, and dominated the match with a 195-run partnership with Root for the third wicket. Root also completed his third consecutive hundred in the series in the last session of the day to move up to the fourth position in the list of most hundreds. This is Root’s 39th Test century and he is fourth on the list behind Sachin Tendulkar (49), Jacques Kallis (45) and Ricky Ponting (41). After completing his 13th century against India by stealing two runs off Akashdeep (one for 85), he pointed his finger towards the sky in tribute to former legend Graham Thorpe by wearing a headband.
The second day of this match (August 1) was dedicated to the late Thorpe. Thorpe, who played 100 Tests for England, died last year after years of battling depression and anxiety. Immediately after Root’s century, Krishna bowled Jacob Bethall (five) and then caught Root behind the wicket to inspire the Indian players. Earlier in the second session of the day, fatigue was evident on all three of India’s fast bowlers who failed to get much help from the pitch after losing the luster of the ball. The spin bowling of Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja also looked ineffective. However, he did not get a chance to bowl much. The Indian fast bowlers adopted a strategy of bowling shots against Root and Brook, but due to the old ball, the batsmen had no problem in getting along with it.
After Brook completed his century, when he hit a brilliant boundary off Akashdeep in the cover zone, the desperation of the Indian fielders on the field increased. However, he was caught by Siraj at cover two balls later trying to play another aggressive shot. As soon as the shot was played, the ball left his hand and he could not control the shot. While Brook used power throughout his innings, Root scored runs with artful shots without any trouble. Earlier in the day’s opening session, Siraj troubled England’s batsmen in a brilliant spell of eight overs. England started the day with a lead of 50 runs for one wicket.
After dismissing Jack Crowley in the last over of the third day of the match, Siraj started bowling with Akashdeep on the fourth day. He put in yet another brilliant spell, shouldering the responsibility of spearheading the bowling attack. He troubled Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope several times during this time. However, the team’s first success of the day was Krishna’s dismissal of Ben Duckett (54). Duckett tried to drive the ball out but the ball went into the hands of Lokesh Rahul who was in the second slip taking the outside edge of the bat. Soon after this, Siraj also got the result of brilliant bowling. He gave India a huge success by stumping Pope (27) for the second time in the match. Pope had achieved rhythm by hitting three fours against Krishna before this over. Root eased the pressure with two brilliant cover drives against Siraj.
Brook, who was batting aggressively, also got a lifeline during this time when Mohammad Siraj’s leg hit the boundary line after catching the famous Krishna’s ball and it turned into six runs. Brook had earlier hit the first six of his innings against Akashdeep. After getting life, he hit two excellent fours against Krishna. Prior to this match, the record for the most successful chase in the fourth innings at the Oval was held by England, who had achieved a target of 263 runs in 1902.