The decisive fifth test was tantalisingly poised with England needing a further 35 runs chasing 374 with 4 wickets remaining to pull off a 3-1 triumph of the Tendulkar-Anderson 5-match series while India on an equal footing of a win that would draw the series as rain put a premature end on the penultimate day after Shubman Gill and company had clawed back dismissing both of England’s two century makers Joe Root and Harry Brook to reducing the hosts from an authoritative 311 for 4 to 339 for 6 when rain and bad light hampered any further play here at the London Oval on Sunday.
Indeed. it took on an all England Sunday best mood when Joe Root, modern test cricket’s most decorated batsman who has closed down on Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 15,000 plus runs propelled by an exhilarating bashing of India in the Tendulkar-Anderson test series, was joined by Brook in thrashing the Indian attack to century highs in taking England within striking distance of what would be their second highest chase. Root scored 105 and Brook 111.
But India came back tooth and nail to seeing the backs of both as soon as they had reached centuries.
England would be one batter short in case the injured Chris Woakes with his hand in a sling does not go out to bat on the final day and even if he did he would do so if forced to effectively reducing England to seven down in reality.
India owed it to Prasidh Krishna to bringing them back into the game from the gloom of lost hope with two wickets in nine balls, before bad light and heavy rain cut short proceedings for the day pushing the test to a heart throbbing final day on Monday.
The equation is indeed nerve wracking with the new ball due in 3.4 overs, and India’s seamers rearing to go for the kill.