Shamik Chakrabarty
After bowling six overs on the spin, Mohammed Siraj wanted a breather. Shubman Gill, his captain, urged him to bowl one more. Siraj, the perennial team man, agreed. He strained every sinew to unleash a yorker, good enough to make even Curtly Ambrose proud. Jacob Bethell was a sitting duck. On the spiciest pitch of the series, Jasprit Bumrah opted out to manage his workload. Siraj, yet again, stood up to be counted.
His eight-over spell post-lunch changed the game. A nip-backer accounted for Ollie Pope. Gill was initially reluctant to take the review and changed his mind at the last moment. Thank goodness he did. Pope, given not out by the on-field umpire, was plumb.
Joe Root’s scalp was huge. An England batting line-up sans Ben Stokes relied heavily on Root’s class in challenging conditions. But an incoming delivery from Siraj did the trick. His figures in that spell read: 8-1-35-3.
Prasidh Krishna, who was bowling ‘hit-me’ deliveries earlier and was foolish enough to give Root some lip, benefited from the pressure created by Siraj. Jamie Smith played a poor shot — an attempted square-drive to a ball that bounced a little more — to be caught by KL Rahul at slip. In the same over, Prasidh trapped Jamie Overton leg-before. England were running away with the game at one stage, reaching 100 in the 15th over. They were suddenly 215/7.
With Chris Woakes taking no further part in the Test due to a shoulder injury, the hosts were effectively eight down. After tea, Prasidh removed Gus Atkinson. England had taken a slender first-innings lead by then. But India had the momentum.
It never looked like the hosts would be in that position, when Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were taking the Indian pacers to the cleaners. It was Bazball unplugged, and Siraj, Prasidh and Akash Deep didn’t know what hit them. The ball was swinging and seaming, but the Indian quicks were struggling with their length. They were also offering room for fun, allowing the England openers to free their arms.
Fifty came in the seventh over. Duckett was reverse-scooping Akash with the contempt of facing a bowler in club cricket. There were opportunities for India. Akash made one rear off a length that took the shoulder of Duckett’s bat and stayed in the air for a while. But Sai Sudharsan went for it as an afterthought. Then, he was too slow to take the advantage of a mix-up between Duckett and Crawley, and the run-out chance went abegging. After lunch, Sai dropped Pope at gully. He is a weak fielder. Overall, India’s fielding has regressed to being arguably the worst among the top cricket nations. Hopefully, the BCCI would consider appointing a new fielding coach.
Duckett perished, gloving an attempted reverse-scoop to Dhruv Jurel behind the stumps. Akash gave him a send-off, putting an arm around the batsman’s shoulder. A line probably was crossed as per the ICC rulebook. It needs to be seen if the match referee has taken note.
Crawley was a victim of his overconfidence. He tried to manufacfure a pull off Prasidh on the heels of a few quiet overs. Ravindra Jadeja took the skier at mid-wicket. Post-lunch, Indian bowlers got their act together. They started to bowl a little fuller and attacked the stumps a lot more. The lion-hearted Siraj — he has already bowled 155.2 overs in the series — led the charge. His 4/86 formed the bedrock of India’s fightback. Prasidh, too, took four wickets and England were all-out for 247, taking a 23-run first-innings lead.
The Oval remembered Graham Thorpe on what would have been his 56th birthday. Out there in the middle, it was like a boxing bout, with punches and counter-punches. Sixteen wickets fell on Day 2 of the final Test. Resuming on overnight 204/6, India folded for 224 in their first innings. In fact, their latest lower-order collapse saw them lose four wickets for six runs. Thirty-eight extras contributed to India’s total, while Atkinson bagged a five-for (5/33).
At stumps, India reached 75/2 in their second innings, losing Rahul and Sai. Yashasvi Jaiswal rode his luck — Brook and Liam Dawson dropped a couple of regulation chances — to remain unbeaten on 51. This is now a one-innings shootout, and Day 3 could well be the series decider.
Brief scores: India 224 (Karun Nair 57, Washington Sundar 26; Gus Atkinson 5/33, Josh Tongue 3/57) and 75/2 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 51 batting, Akash Deep 4 batting) vs England 247 (Zak Crawley 64, Harry Brook 53, Ben Duckett 43; Mohammed Siraj 4/86, Prasidh Krishna 4/62)
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