This Indian tour of England has been everything that cricket fans could have hoped for. The test series has been a great contest that has see-sawed through the four tests: a draw, a win, a loss and then another win for India. There have been great performances; both individual and team. India came into the fourth test a tad chastened by the innings defeat in the third test, but thirsty for victory nevertheless. So here’s what went on in the fourth India England test at the famed Oval.
The home team opted to bowl and it seemed to be a good decision when the Indian top-order was quickly dispatched
Rohit Sharma (11), K L Rahul (17) and Cheteshwar Pujara (4) did not make much impact and neither did Ravindra Jadeja (10) and Ajinkya Rahane (14). Skipper Virat Kohli was the only top-order batsman to get to 50.
It was Shardul Thakur to the rescue. The No 8 batsman became the highest run-getter of the Indian innings with his 57, steering India to a modest 191 all out. It may be rude to liken the English batsmen to angry dogs but this is objectively hilarious.
Shardul Thakur’s invaluable knock is the second fastest test fifty by an Indian player.
Thanks in large part to Ollie Pope's 81 and a 50 by Chris Woakes as well as contributions from Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Dawid Malan, England got to 290 and an almost 100 run lead.
Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja took two each while Shardul Thakur and Mohammad Siraj took one wicket each.
This is an old tweet from meme-meister Wasim Jaffer, but it applies here: Rohit Sharma’s century, Pujara’s 61, Rishabh Pant's 50 and contributions from Kohli and Rahul gave India a big lead and 466 runs on the board.
In the second innings as well, Shardul Thakur made 60.
Both openers got 50s and it was a good start. However, the middle-order collapse put paid to any grandiose plans of victory the English batsmen may have nursed.
Jasprit Bumrah reached the 100 wicket milestone in this test – the quickest Indian player to reach this test milestone (24 tests while Kapil Dev did it in 25 tests).
Yadav picked up three wickets again. At one point he got rid of the dangerous looking Chris Woakes for 18 to reduce England to 193/8.
England were bundled out for 210 and Indian cricket fans were over the moon.
Rohit Sharma was adjudged player of the match, though many would argue that Shardul Thakur with his two fifties and three wickets in the match was more deserving of the award.
This blast from the past details a historic win back in 1971, which was the last time that India won a test at this location. In this series, India now has an unassailable 2-1 lead and will take England on for the fifth and final test on 10th September.
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