India produced a thrilling performance on the fifth and final day of the fourth cricket Test match at the Oval to record a victory by a huge margin of 157 runs and take a lead of 2-1 in the ongoing five-match series, with the fifth and final Test to be played from September 10-14 at Old Trafford in Manchester.
After setting a huge target of 368 runs for England to win in the final session of the fourth day on Sunday, India endured all sorts of different challenges that came along their way to bowl England out for 210 in their second innings and thus record a massive victory. This is for the first time that an Indian touring team has recorded more than one Test match victory in a series in England since 1986 when they won 2-0.
It was also an all-round performance by the Indian bowling attack which was missing its star players in Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, to bowl England out for scores of 290 and 210 in the two innings. In the final innings, Umesh Yadav was the pick among the bowlers with figures of 18.2-2-60-3 whereas the others in Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur claimed two wickets each.
While Umesh bagged plenty of wickets, it was Bumrah who created an impactful performance after the lunch break on the final day, which sparked a collapse in the English ranks. After England had made a steady start with their openers Rory Burns (50) and Haseeb Hameed making half-centuries for themselves, it was up to India to bring themselves back in the contest on a flat wicket which was not doing anything favourable to the bowlers.
Jadeja broke through the defence of Haseeb Hameed to dismiss him for 63 from 193 balls with the help of six boundaries and that is where the matters turned awful for England. From 120/3 when Dawid Malan was runout for 5, England collapsed in a spectacular manner to hand India a huge victory.
While Jadeja dismissed Hameed, it was Bumrah who produced an outstanding spell of fast bowling with the old ball as he cleaned up Ollie Pope for 2 and Jonny Bairstow for a four-ball duck to leave England reeling at 146/5. Jadeja returned to the bowling attack to remove Moeen Ali from the equation as England were suddenly 146/6.
England captain Joe Root resisted India’s advance in the company of Chris Woakes but their partnership did not last long enough. Shardul Thakur, the hero of India’s victory at the Oval, returned into the bowling spell to have Root chopping one on to his wickets for 36, which was an indication that things were about to end pretty soon in the contest for the home side.
The English tail did not last long despite Chris Woakes making 18 from 47 balls, Craig Overton making 10 from 29 balls and Ollie Robinson unbeaten on 10 from 32 as India stormed to a huge victory to take an unassailable lead in the series with one match left to play.
