England crumble to 210 all out on day five at The Oval as India take 2-1 series lead with one game to play; hosts hopes of completing record run chase of 368 are wrecked by Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja; final Test at Emirates Old Trafford live on Sky Sports Cricket on Friday
Tuesday 7 September 2021 06:10, UK
England tumbled to a 157-run defeat on day five of the fourth Test at The Kia Oval as a Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja-inspired India took a 2-1 lead in the series with one game to play.
Bumrah (2-27) and Jadeja (2-50) ripped the heart out of England's improbable chase of a record 368 with four wickets for just six runs early in the second session, as the hosts collapsed from 141-2 to 147-6 and eventually 210 all out.
Bumrah bowled Ollie Pope (2) and Jonny Bairstow (0) with outstanding deliveries, making Pope his 100th Test victim during a scintillating spell of reverse swing on a flat deck with those scalps sandwiched by left-arm spinner Jadeja accounting for Haseeb Hameed (63) and Moeen Ali (0).
Joe Root (36) and Chris Woakes (18) looked to rebuild but when Root dragged Shardul Thakur (2-22) onto his stumps 20 minutes before tea, England looked cooked and they went on to be rolled in 92.2 overs as Umesh Yadav (3-60) wiped out the lower order, finishing with the wicket of James Anderson.
Hameed and Rory Burns (50) had earlier extended their overnight opening stand from 77 to 100 to raise hopes that England could trump the 362 they managed against Australia during the 2019 Ashes Test at Emerald Headingley, when Ben Stokes struck a remarkable 135 not out.
But that epic encounter in Leeds remains the team's highest successful Test chase and they now must win the fifth and final Test against India at Emirates Old Trafford from Friday to avoid a second successive home series defeat, having gone down 1-0 to New Zealand in June.
India are now just one good game away from winning their first series in England since 2007 - the forecast in Manchester is not great but hopefully that improves so this thrill-a-minute series ends with a fitting finale.
There were no weather issues at The Oval on Monday with the sold-out ground bathed in sunshine as the fifth day began with all results possible.
England required a further 291 runs and whittled that down 268 before losing their first wicket - Burns snicking a jaffa from Thakur, bowled from around the wicket, through to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant one ball after sealing his 11th Test half-century and hundred partnership with Hameed.
India should have struck again seven overs later but Mohammed Siraj shelled a regulation catch at mid-on off Jadeja when Hameed was on 55.
Dawid Malan (5) was next out, run out by substitute fielder Mayank Agarwal after a mix-up with Hameed - Hameed tapped Jadeja towards cover and set off for a risky single, with Malan short of his ground at the striker's end as Pant collected the throw and whipped off the bails.
Malan had survived a tight lbw review on umpire's call a couple of overs earlier after padding up to Jadeja, with the ball not hitting enough of the stumps for the on-field decision to be overturned.
Siraj, looking to atone for spilling that easy catch, bowled a superb spell prior to lunch, testing both Hameed and Root at the end of a session in which just 54 runs were scored.
Root reverse swept Jadeja's first ball of the afternoon for four, which signalled that, at that stage, England were targeting more than a draw.
Their task became extremely arduous, though, once Hameed - who scored just 20 runs from the 108 balls he faced on day five having hit 43 from 85 on the fourth evening - was bowled by Jadeja.
Jadeja's delivery pitched outside leg and then turned sharply to clip the top of Hameed's off stump, meaning Siraj's blunder only cost India eight runs.
Then it was Bumrah time - the seamer taking 2-6 in six pacey overs as he nipped a delivery onto Pope's stumps via the thigh and then cleaned up Bairstow for a four-ball duck with a devastating, swinging yorker - before Moeen also fell for no score, clipping Jadeja to short leg.
Root and Woakes stemmed the flow of wickets and raised England's slender hopes of a draw but they were then shredded as their captain inside-edged a gentle delivery from Thakur onto his stumps - the dismissal ensuring Root went without a hundred for the first time in the series after tons at Trent Bridge, Lord's and Headingley.
Root then watched on as Umesh had Woakes caught at short midwicket with the old ball and bowled Craig Overton (10) off his elbow with the new one before having Anderson caught behind to end the contest - Anderson's review to no avail.
The tourists' win at The Kia Oval came after a topsy-turvy tussle in which they were 127-7 in their first innings before Thakur's 31-ball fifty propelled them up 191 all out and then 312-6 in their second only for Thakur's second half-century of the game to help them bump that total up to 466.
England - who were 62-5 in their first innings before carving out a lead of 99 - will reflect on a number of missed opportunities, having dropped six catches in the match, including Rohit Sharma on six and 31 in India's second innings before he made 127.
Watch day one of the fifth Test, at Emirates Old Trafford, live from 10am on Friday on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event.
