England v India: fifth men’s cricket Test, day two – as it happened
Ali Martin’s reportThe end of a pretty remarkable day at The Oval,Only 75 overs were bowled, but in that time we saw 342 runs, 16 wickets and thousands of Thorpey headbands,India, who looked a beaten team during a bruising the morning session, showed extraordinary resilience to fight back and then edge ahead in the game,They were inspired by Mohammed Siraj, who took out England’s entire middle order across two superb spells,England need something similar from Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue or Jamie Overton tomorrow morning.
If not, they could be facing their fourth consecutive 2-2 draw at home to India or Australia,The umpires tell Ollie Pope he can’t bowl his fast bowlers because of the deteriorating light,“We don’t have spin,” he says to Kumar Dharmasena,“Nah only joking,”England don’t have a specialist spinner, just Joe Root and Jacob Bethell, and Pope decides that’s too big a risk against Jaiswal.
The players leave the field and that’ll be stumps,18th over: India 75-2 (Jaiswal 51, Deep 4) Akash Deep comes out as nightwatchman and chips his first ball for four,It didn’t go where he intended, not he will or should care,Incidentally, replays showed that Sudharsan was in the process of walking off when he heard something, presumably from Duckett, and turned back towards the England huddle,Gus Atkinson traps Sudharsan LBW with a straight delivery from round the wicket.
It hit both pads and knocked Sudharsan off his feet.Sudharsan reviewed – no idea why – and then had angry words with Duckett before leaving the field.17th over: India 70-1 (Jaiswal 51, Sudharsan 11) Jaiswal bends his back to steer Overton for six over the keeper’s head, a cracking shot that brings up a 44-ball fifty.He’s giving England a taste of their own medicine, taking the game away form them at dizzying speed.16th over: India 64-1 (Jaiswal 45, Sudharsan 11) Tongue takes a break, with Atkinson replacing him.
He starts well with an accurate maiden to Sudharsan,There are 25 minutes’ play remaining tonight,England need a wicket in that time, ideally Jaiswal,15th over: India 64-1 (Jaiswal 45, Sudharsan 11) Now Sudharsan has been put down in the slips,That’s the third dropped catch of the innings.
Sudharsan drove at Overton, bowling round the wicket, and snicked it to the left of Crawley at third slip.He was beaten for pace and could only punch the ball for three runs.England look flat, slightly aggrieved too.A series victory – which looked nailed-on on last Saturday and even earlier today – could be slipping away.14th over: India 56-1 (Jaiswal 41, Sudharsan 7) Oof, Jaiswal has been dropped.
That feels like a huge moment.He hooked Tongue straight to long leg, where the substitute Liam Dawson lost sight of the ball and shelled what would otherwise have been a routine catch.He’s quite lucky it didn’t do a number on his front teeth.Tongue has a big LBW shout against Sudharsan turned down by Ahsan Raza later in the over.It was straight enough but probably too high.
Tongue’s figures (7-1-25-1) don’t tell the story of a genuinely brilliant spell,13th over: India 55-1 (Jaiswal 40, Sudharsan 7) A maiden from Overton to Sudharsan, who is leaving as many deliveries as possible,His temperament looks suited to batting No3,12th over: India 55-1 (Jaiswal 40, Sudharsan 7) Sudharsan gets off the mark by turning Tongue wide of Bethell at leg slip for four,That tactic has been successful against Sudharsan but right now, in the sixth over of a ferocious spell, I’m not sure Tongue needs to deviate from his usual line.
Eight from the over.India lead by 32.11th over: India 47-1 (Jaiswal 39, Sudharsan 0) Overton angles a delivery across Sudharsan.At first I thought Sudharsan was beaten but on reflection he played well inside the line; he does that a lot and must be a nightmare for the data bros who record things like false strokes and plays and misses.“Have you noticed?” says John Starbuck.
“Josh Tongue, when he takes a wicket, sticks his tongue out.Well done him, on several levels.”Thank goodness Harry Butt was a wicketkeeper.10th over: India 46-1 (Jaiswal 38, Sudharsan 0) KL Rahul ends the most productive series of his career with 532 runs at 53.20.
The pleasure was all ours.Josh Tongue gets his reward for a barnstorming spell of bowling.KL Rahul starts to open the face of the bat, then tries to leave the ball at the last minute.Too late: it runs off the face to first slip, where Joe Root takes a nice tumbling catch.England needed that wicket.
9th over: India 41-0 (Jaiswal 33, Rahul 7) Jamie Overton replaces Atkinson, whose first spell of 4-1-22-0 confirmed how brilliantly he bowled in the first innings,Jaiswal knows what’s coming – short stuff – and uppercuts deliberately for six,That’s a brilliant stroke,Jaiswal’s pulsating start has made India favourites, a scenario that was almost unimaginable five hours ago,They lead by 18 runs.
8th over: India 34-0 (Jaiswal 25, Rahul 7) Tongue starts his fourth over with a perfect yorker that is skilfully dug out by Jaiswal,Good lord, what has Tongue had for supper? He’s bowling spectacularly,Jaiswal blatantly copies Ben Duckett charges the next ball and misses an almighty yahoo,The next ball brings a run-out chance, missed by Duckett, when Jaiswal calls Rahul through for a dodgy single on the off side,Rahul continues an eventful over by square-driving Tongue’s first poor delivery for four.
Compelling stuff,7th over: India 29-0 (Jaiswal 25, Rahul 3) 6th over: India 28-0 (Jaiswal 24, Rahul 3) Tongue beats Rahul four times in an outstanding over, almost comically good,The third of the four led to a big appeal for caught behind; England decided not review and replays showed the ball hit only the flap of the pad,Brilliant umpiring from Ahsan Raza,5th over: India 26-0 (Jaiswal 24, Rahul 1) Fantastic shot! Atkinson, who hasn’t been able to pick up where he left off this morning, is driven exquisitely through extra cover by Jaiswal.
That’s his fifth boundary in the last 10 balls.He makes it six fours in 13 balls when Harry Brook drops a sharp chance at second slip.Brook was beaten for pace and could only help the ball on its way to the fence.I reckon Brook would take that maybe eight times out of 10.That last boundary has taken India into the lead.
4th over: India 17-0 (Jaiswal 16, Rahul 0) Jaiswal, cramped from room by a good ball from Tongue, still manages to force a cut into the ground and between third slip and gully for four,Dangerous signs here for England,3rd over: India 12-0 (Jaiswal 12, Rahul 0) Jaiswal gets off the mark with a sumptuous on-drive for four off Atkinson,He could be so dangerous in a lowish-scoring game, something that is easy to overlook give his modest form in the second half of the series,Jaiswal proves that point by taking two more boundaries in the over, a thick edge followed by a withering cut stroke.
In the first innings Atkinson conceded only one boundary in 130 deliveries; in the second he’s been hit for three in 12.2nd over: India 0-0 (Jaiswal 0, Rahul 0) Josh Tongue shares the new ball.His third delivery, left safely on length by Rahul, comes back so sharply that Jamie Smith has to dive a long way to his left to save four byes.In the first innings, Tongue was all over The Oval.He starts the second with an excellent maiden, very accurate.
1st over: India 0-0 (Jaiswal 0, Rahul 0) Gus Atkinson opens up to Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has been out for 0 in the second innings of the last two Tests.He tries to get off the mark with a sizzling cut off the first ball; Ben Duckett denies him with a fine stop.Instead it’s a maiden, including the obligatory play and miss when Atkinson gets one to hold its line from round the wicket.A reminder that play can continue until 7.30pm, with a maximum of 33 overs to be bowled.
It’s a big hour 100-odd minutes for England’s makeshift attack,Siraj finishes the job with a nipbacker that Brook drags onto the stumps,He has inspired a mighty fightback from India, who were facing a 3-1 series defeat when England vroomed to 129 for 1,Siraj finishes with 4 for 86 having wiped out England’s middle order: Pope, Root, Brook and Bethell, all LBW or bowled,Krishna also recovered excellently to finish with 4 for 62.
But Siraj, the only seamer bowl in every innings of this series, was the driving force.51st over: England 247-8 (Brook 53, Tongue 0) The slow dance continues.Brook takes a single off the fourth ball, Tongue does the rest.England lead by 23.50th over: England 246-8 (Brook 52, Tongue 0) Brook slaps Siraj for two to reach an excellent fifty: at times mature and controlled, at others outrageous and beyond the scope of the Collins Dictionary.
Brook’s unsuccessful attempt to steal another two almost leads a run-out at both ends.No matter: Tongue continues his Geoff Allott tribute act by playing out the rest of the over.Okay, I’m getting carried away: Tongue has faced five balls, Allott batted for 77.“Some wonderful and poignant messages today on Graham Thorpe,” writes Darren Vickers.“What an incredible bunch the OBO community is.
I could say that I’ve felt like I had ‘something in my eye’ all day whilst reading the messages, but in the spirt of Thorpey, let’s ditch the euphemism and just acknowledge the emotional and open messages that are being written on depression and mental illness.“My own memory of watching Thorpe is of a standout player in what were otherwise some very average England teams.One of my favourite ever players and I’ve always wanted a Kookaburra bat (yellow grip) as a result.Always felt a great shame to me that he was one series away from the 2005 Ashes and being able to enjoy that after so much toil.”As sad as I was for Thorpe, who along with Robin Smith was my teenhood hero, I always thought there was something fitting about our most Australian player have his career ended in such an unsentimental manner.
49th over: England 243-8 (Brook 49, Tongue 0) Mohammed Siraj has come back out wearing a Graham Thorpe headband,When the book of this series is written, Siraj will be one of the lead characters,Brook turns down a single off Krishna, then takes one off his fourth delivery,Tongue survives the remainder of the over,The players are back on the field.
Let’s get it on,“Today has been the best of this strange, quirky, fully lovely place,” writes Guy Hornsby, and I have a bad feeling he’s referring to you lot,“I’ve been reading the OBO as long as it’s been around, and sending in mostly drivel since the late 2000s,In some of those years it really did feel like a therapy session as England fell in a comfortingly familiar heap and the rest of us grasped onto anything to distract from it,“Life, as they say, imitates art, and some of the beautiful, sad, and admirably honest correspondents today have shown that cricket truly is the backdrop to our existence, the best and worst of it
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