This was touted as potentially the best batting day of the final Test, largely because it was expected to be warm and sunny. The sun did beat down at the start of Saturday’s action before often disappearing behind the clouds, but that didn’t prevent the bat from calling the shots.
India had numerous heroes on the middle day at the Oval, the most luminous being Yashasvi Jaiswal, the left-handed opener who extended his love for the English bowling with a fourth hundred against his favourite opponents. Akash Deep also frustrated the hosts in his avatar as night watchman, breezing to a wonderful 66 when the need of the hour for Ollie Pope’s men was early wickets.
Five-wicket haul for Tongue
Their century stand (107) for the third wicket was a solid base on which the middle order built superbly. There were handy contributions from Dhruv Jurel and Ravindra Jadeja, who capped off a wonderful series with the bat with a sixth score in excess of 50, while the icing was provided by Washington Sundar.
Fresh off a maiden century at Old Trafford last week, the left-hander went from 17 to 53 in last-man Prasidh Krishna’s company with a flurry of magnificent sixes that exposed England’s already limited bowling resources. By the time he was dismissed to give Josh Tongue his fifth wicket of the innings, he had powered India to 396, setting England a target of 374 to clinch the series 3-1. Just to put things in perspective, the highest winning total at The Oval is 263, which England scored against Australia in 1902. At the time of going to press, England were 27-0.
It’s more than likely that England will live to rue as many as six dropped chances, not all of them in the ‘very difficult’ category. They had already shelled Jaiswal twice the previous evening, on 20 and 40, and the opener punished them to shed a string of poor second-innings scores. But the one that must really rankle is the catch Zak Crawley shelled at third slip when Deep, on 21, flashed at Tongue in the day’s eighth over after India had resumed on 75-2.
Jaiswal, Deep grind it out
Tongue and Gus Atkinson, as well as Jaime Overton, did have their moments as the ball continued to nibble around, but with Jaiswal dialling down his aggression and Deep batting like a specialist bat, India ground out a lead that grew with every passing moment. Deep’s maiden half-century was greeted with exuberance by the dressing room and by the time he was finally dismissed, he had put India firmly in the driver’s seat.
Shubman Gill was trapped in front off the first ball after lunch and Karun Nair’s troubled stay was ended by Atkinson, but by this time, Jaiswal had brought up his second century of the series. His departure to a tired cut sparked a terrific late riposte with Jurel and Jadeja playing handsome strokes to set the stage for a grandstand finish from Washington, whose pulling was of the highest order as he blitzed England and pushed India close to the 400-run mark in their final outing with the bat this series.
Brief scores
India 224 & 396 (Y Jaiswal 118, A Deep 66, W Sundar 53, R Jadeja 53, D Jurel 34; J Tongue 5-125, G Atkinson 3-127, J Overton 2-98) vs England 247 & 27-0 (B Duckett 13*, Z Crawley 13*) (scores incomplete)
