India’s spirited seamers, missing key man Jasprit Bumrah, bowled the tourists back into the game and the series as they reduced England to 215-7 at tea after a exhilarating second session on day two of the final test at The Oval on Friday.
Continuing the back and forth theme of the entire series, India recovered from England’s pre-lunch batting assault and their own morning collapse to force themselves right back into contention in a match they have to win to save the series with England leading 2-1.
Harry Brook (33) was unbeaten at tea and with injured all-rounder Chris Woakes unable to bat, India will feel they are close to preventing England posting a healthy first-innings advantage.
They certainly ran off the pitch in better heart than on the two previous occasions in the day as England had a dream start.
Resuming at 204-6 India were skittled for 224 in less than half an hour as pace bowler Gus Atkinson took five wickets on his return to action having not played a test since May.
It was an all-too-familiar collapse by the tourists this summer as Karun Nair was lbw to Tongue for 57 and Washington Sundar was caught for 26. Atkinson then bowled Mohammed Siraj and had Prasidh Krishna caught behind, both for ducks, to finish with 5-33 from 21.4 overs.
England set about their reply in their usual, swashbuckling fashion, exemplified by an extraordinary “reverse hook” for six by Ben Duckett off Deep.
They reached their 50 opening partnership in seven overs – the fastest England have ever managed in a test – but fell just short of the 100 as Duckett was caught behind reversing for 43.
They were 109-1 at lunch but Zak Crawley seemed to get frustrated as he struggled to reproduce his morning form and was out for 64 after a mis-hit pull off Krishna.
Stand-in captain Ollie Pope soon followed for 22 as DRS agreed with India’s lbw appeal after a sharp cut-back ball by Siraj.
Joe Root brought his usual calmness to proceedings, despite what appeared a pre-determined tactic from the Indians to get under his skin.
There then followed a gripping session as India’s bowlers pounded in, well aware that a couple more wickets could tilt the match in their favour, while England’s powerful middle-order knew if they could establish a partnership or two then the odds were against India finding a way to win.
Siraj got the key wicket of Root, lbw for 29, to bring 21-year-old Jacob Bethell to the crease for his first home test.
He crunched one fabulous square-cut four but the ever-willing Siraj pinned him with a swinging yorker next ball for his third lbw of the day.
Krishnan finished off the session in style by having Smith caught in the slips for eight then getting Craig Overton lbw for nought.
