READ ALSO: Alastair Cook signs off the way he started - with a ton
After the two-and-a-half-day disaster at The Lord's last month, Virat Kohli's boys are now staring at another humiliation at the other end of London, The Oval. All the talk of being the best touring side in the world is ringing hollow as India are on the brink of a 1-4 defeat following a calamitous fourth day which saw England take complete control of the fifth Test match.
After Alastair Cook (147) and Joe Root (125) set Kohli's boys a target of 464, James Anderson and Stuart Broad reduced India to 58-3 with a spell of hostile swing bowling in the last hour of the day. Sitting duck Shikhar Dhawan (1) was found plumb leg-before by Anderson while Cheteshwar Pujara (0) was leg-before the same over with one that came back off the seam. It helped Anderson take his 563rd scalp and he is now level with Glenn McGrath for the highest number of wickets in Test cricket.
Anderson, though, would be a little disappointed because the scorebook would say he lost his personal duel with Kohli in this series. The king of swing would have hoped to go past McGrath with the wicket of the Indian captain for the first time in the series, but Broad didn't allow him that chance. The paceman induced a nick off Kohli on the first ball he faced and India were reduced to three down for two.
KL Rahul (46 batting) and Ajinkya Rahane (10 batting) survived a few difficult overs towards the end of the day to take India to 58-3, but the writing is pretty much on the wall.
When the day started, one would have hoped that the Indian bowling unit would come up with some magic to restrict England. With the lead reading 154, a few quick wickets could have brought India back into the game. But the first blow came in the form of Ishant Sharma's left ankle injury and all the stand-out pacer could manage for the day was one over. The Indian attack simply lost the plot from there as Cook and Root cashed in.
With the sun out and the heavy roller calming the pitch down, the first hour, like all the days till now, didn't produce anything out of the ordinary. The job of Cook and Root was made even easier by Indian pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami, who shifted to a shorter length. It was meat and drink for the English duo as they feasted on Indian bowling, the runs coming at a fair clip.
A lot was hinging on Ravindra Jadeja (3-179) at this stage, but with the pressure already released, there wasn't much the left-arm spinner could have done. Kohli went on the defensive way too early and with hardly any fielders breathing down the necks of Cook and Root, they found it easy to deal with Jadeja's spin.
The odd chance off Root was dropped but by then the train had left the station for India. The entire anticipation was around Cook's 33rd Test century in his last game and he got that as The Oval crowd cheered him for a good of couple of minutes.
It's been a while for Root as well since he got his last Test century and the English captain wasn't in a mood to let go of this opportunity. The celebration after completing his 14th Test ton was possibly more in relief at getting a three-figure score in the five-day format after more than a year.
Both got out in quick succession, falling to new boy Hanuma Vihari (3-37) who also bowls off-spin, but that hardly mattered in the bigger picture.
Source : timesofindia[dot]indiatimes[dot]com
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