Third time’s a charm for Josh Tongue as he finds a way to remove Ravindra Jadeja after giving away four wides and then a boundary in successive deliveries, with the wicket leaving India 123-5 on day one of the fifth and final Test against England at The Oval.
FOLLOW LIVE: England v India fifth Test – day one
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Centuries by Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar send England-India series to fifth test match decider at The Oval.
India, led by captain Shubman Gill, batted with great character to secure a hard-fought draw in the fourth test against England and keep the series alive going into the final game.
After losing two wickets before they had scored a run in their second innings, India batted for over five sessions for the loss of two more wickets to end the match on 425-4 at Old Trafford in Manchester on Sunday.
A courageous hundred from Gill – his fourth of the series – and dogged unbeaten centuries from Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar – gave the home crowd little to cheer on a tough day five for England.
A closely fought series remains at 2-1 to England, and the hosts must avoid defeat in the final test at The Oval in London, starting on Thursday, to win it.
“This is no less than a win for us, given we were around 300 runs off the lead. Our batsman put on a great display,” Gill told the BBC.
“As soon as England got the new ball, it was doing a little bit, but our batters did really well, and it was tremendous, with a little bit of luck going our way as some balls can get dragged on, brilliant batting and brave batting.”
England captain Ben Stokes, who took five wickets in India’s first innings but was not fit to bowl much on Saturday, brought himself into the attack on Sunday morning with India resuming on 174-2.
The hosts were firm favourites to seal victory at this point, even more so when Stokes’s reintroduction paid dividends. The 34-year-old trapped KL Rahul by lbw for 90, ending his excellent third-wicket partnership with Gill at 188.
Gill remained undeterred, however, even after getting a nasty blow on the hand. In his first series as captain, the 25-year-old became only the third skipper to score four hundreds in a single test series.
After almost seven hours at the crease, a tired-looking Gill wafted at a Jofra Archer delivery to fall just before lunch for 103. Jadeja was dropped on the next ball by Joe Root, a tough chance at first slip.
England still had plenty of time to secure victory, but the home side barely created any chances, with India seeing out the draw in relative comfort.
Washington moved along conservatively after lunch, but hit successive boundaries, one a huge six, to move to his fifth test half-century. Jadeja reached his fifty and passed 1,000 test runs against England, becoming the third Indian player to do so this series.
After tea, with their chance of victory gone, England offered India the opportunity to call a halt to proceedings early, but Gill kept his team out there.
With England rotating their bowlers, Jadeja swept to his fifth test ton under no pressure, before Washington quickly completed his maiden test hundred.
India did then agree to a draw – the first non-rain affected draw for England since coach Brendon McCullum and Stokes came together in 2022.
“Another hard-fought test,” Stokes told reporters. “Another five-dayer. We set the game up really well, the way we put the Indian bowlers under pressure, focusing on batting once.
“We gave ourselves a great chance of bowling them out. We played the game how we wanted to; it didn’t just pan out the way we wanted,” Stokes added.
“Mentally, I feel fine; physically, I’ve been better. It has been a pretty big workload this series.”
England survived a courageous second innings fightback by India’s Ravindra Jadeja on the final day of the third Test at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.
England beat India by 22 runs on a final day of simmering tension and high drama in the third Test at Lord’s to move 2-1 up in the best-of-five series.
Shoaib Bashir bowled Mohammed Siraj for four to seal victory, India’s number 11 playing a defensive stroke before the ball trickled down the face of his bat and rolled on to the stumps as he watched on in disbelief.
As the England players celebrated wildly late on Monday, Ravindra Jadeja trudged off the field after making a valiant unbeaten 61 to take India to the brink of an extraordinary win.
The hosts had looked on course for a far more comfortable victory when they reduced India to 112-8 at lunch, but Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah battled for nearly two hours to inch their team towards a target of 193.
Jadeja was given out leg before wicket to Chris Woakes by the umpire. But the decision was overturned on review, and the left-hander heaved the next delivery over mid-wicket for six, prompting loud cheers from the Indian fans.
England finally made the breakthrough when Bumrah, on five, skied an attempted pull off Ben Stokes and was caught by substitute fielder Sam Cook.
The majority of the crowd erupted with a mixture of joy and relief, but Jadeja continued to frustrate England, reaching his 50, off 150 balls, by edging Stokes over the slips for four.
Siraj survived 30 deliveries for his four runs as Jadeja farmed the bowling and took a succession of singles off the fourth ball of the over to dominate the strike.
Siraj suffered a painful blow to his shoulder after being struck by a Jofra Archer delivery and shortly afterwards his resistance was finally broken.
England had claimed four wickets in the morning to take charge of the match after India resumed on 58-4.
Rishabh Pant played an extraordinary one-handed straight drive for four off Archer to move to nine, but the fast bowler responded two balls later with an excellent delivery which uprooted his off stump.
Stokes snared KL Rahul lbw for 39, the England captain dropping to his knees and imploring the umpire to give him out.
He refused to do so, but England called for a review and the decision was overturned to huge cheers from the crowd.
Washington Sundar was next to fall for a duck, Archer leaping to his right to take a superb one-handed catch off his own bowling.
Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy frustrated England with solid defence in a partnership of 30 until Woakes found the edge of Reddy’s bat just before lunch to give the hosts a huge lift as they left the field to warm applause from a packed crowd.
The fourth Test will begin on July 23 at Old Trafford in Manchester.
