After four Tests on flat pitches that took bowlers from both teams to the brink and counted among its casualties – Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Jasprit Bumrah – The Oval which has been profoundly seam-friendly in recent times provided a margin of error. England played like they needed it; there were 30 extras but also six wickets and just 204 runs.
India came to the ground facing humongous odds. But they beat them. The probability of losing a 15th toss in a row was 32728 to 1. There’s a chance unicorns are easier to find than a coin that will fall the way Shubman Gill wants it to.
England got first use of a pitch with 8mm of grass on it and their fast bowlers benefited from the weather in more than one way. Rain through most of the afternoon helped keep their legs fresh and the threat of it, hanging over the entire day, created overhead conditions that were perfect for swing and seam. Only 64 overs were possible but there was enough help to bowl a team out. England’s lack of discipline is the reason why India are still standing. That and Karun Nair scoring a Test fifty after 3149 days dreaming of it. His hopes of becoming a permanent fixture in this batting line-up are still alive, with his opponents lending him a helping hand.
Josh Tongue could only create 13 false shots in 13 overs. Watching him bowl raised the suspicion that the stumps aren’t inanimate; that they can get up and move wherever they please. Otherwise why would a Test match bowler stray so far and so often. His first over produced 11 runs in wides. And yet this was the same man who eventually made England feel comfortable about their decision to bowl first when he found his radar – briefly – to dismiss B Sai Sudharsan and Ravindra Jadeja in the space of four overs. India went from a respectable 101 for 3 to 123 for 5 and it was because Tongue wasn’t bowling line and length. He was bowling filth and jaffas.
Gill will take a portion of the blame as well. He was looking good in testing conditions, rendering England’s most experienced bowler – Chris Woakes – toothless by batting a foot and a half in front of his crease and exploiting the mistakes from the rest of the attack – who have 18 caps between them – by cutting and pulling handsomely. In doing so, he went past Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of 732, against West Indies in 1978-79, to become the Indian captain with the most runs in a Test series.
No batter who reaps such a big bounty does so without something special about him. In Gill’s case, it is the sound of bat hitting ball. Often times, it is deafening, a sign of shots well-chosen and perfectly executed. Ironically though, his dismissal here was the result of a ball he middled. He thought he could get a run off a front-foot block but he hadn’t placed it wide enough of the bowler. Gus Atkinson had a head start thanks to his followthrough, he picked the ball up comfortably, took aim at the keeper’s end and broke the stumps. Gill wasn’t even in the frame. Five minutes later, rain swept the players off the field. It was as untimely as a wicket could be.
Sai Sudharsan enhanced his reputation while he was out there on the ground he calls home in county cricket. He didn’t look quite so susceptible to being caught down the leg side, even though England kept targeting him there. There was a moment where a pigeon flew right across the pitch just as Atkinson let go of the ball. It was an inswinger. Nicely pitched up. Searching for lbw and bowled. But Sai Sudharsan, on instinct, prevented his front leg from going too far across and was able to bring down a lovely straight bat. That was the kind of delivery that was taking him out early on in the series. It raised the question that maybe this is the real him and that in Leeds and Manchester, he was just a mess of nerves because he was playing his first few Tests. It took an unplayable delivery from an unlikely source – Tongue – to dislodge him for 38 off 108.
Nair took over from there, playing some gorgeous drives, particularly through cover. He still appears vulnerable to the ball in the channel because his bat comes down in an angle and his front foot doesn’t move too far but England didn’t test him there enough. Atkinson was their most reliable bowler. He only had a second XIs game to prove his readiness for Test cricket again after a hamstring injury and apparently that’s enough of a testing ground. His first spell was pristine 6-1-7-1, where he took down Yashasvi Jaiswal early and caused problems throughout. But the rest of the attack only got their act together in the final session.
Tongue and Jamie Overton did point to some extenuating circumstances for their rhythm being awry. They kept slipping as they powered their weight through their bowling action because the landing spot for their front foot kept giving away. Saw dust came to the rescue but it still wasn’t ideal. When you’re running in worried you could twist your leg, you run in less hard.
Nair and Washington Sundar saw India through to the close of a strange day’s play. Neither team will be disappointed with their efforts, though England will be mulling the injury that Woakes sustained. His efforts to stop a boundary late in the day might have led to a dislocated left shoulder.
Brief scores [Day 1 stumps]
India 204 for 6 in 64 overs (Sai Sudharsan 38, Karun Nair 52*, Washington Sundar 19*; Gus Atkinson 2-31, Josh Tongue 2-47) vs England
[Cricinfo]
