Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja played starring roles on the final afternoon as India broke through England’s resistance to complete a famous win in the fourth Test at The Oval.
Resuming play at 77/0, Joe Root-led England needed a further 291 runs with all their wickets intact and an entire day’s play left. And with the surface still playing very true from most passages barring some rough spots wide outside the left-hander’s off-stump, India’s task was challenging on two fronts.
They needed to make sure with some consistently accurate bowling that one result gradually slips out of the equation, and then they could maintain attacking fields for longer after that in search of breakthroughs.
India conceded only 54 runs in the first session of play, not allowing England to get away and start aiming for the target. Jadeja and Bumrah helped India tick this important box as they hardly gave away a thing bowling a major chunk of the overs, especially Jadeja.
They were rewarded for their disciplined bowling in the second session of play where they ran through England’s middle-order, sharing two wickets apiece.
In a spell where he generated great pace and movement off a largely benign surface, Bumrah went through the gate against Ollie Pope and then yorked Jonny Bairstow in very quick succession. At the other end, Jadeja got a well set Haseeb Hameed bowled after his half-century and then made an easy feast of Moeen Ali, who could only lob the ball up off a defensive prod to the short leg fielder.
Collectively, Bumrah (2/27) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/50) gave away runs at an economy rate of only 1.67 over 52 overs. That was tremendous on one of the truest final innings tracks one would’ve seen in a Test match.
Perhaps the most telling impact of the work done by Jadeja and Bumrah reflected not in their wickets column but the others’ tally. The rest of the Indian attack got to bowl to English batsmen, who were suddenly having to take more risks – not to score for victory, which was out of reach now – but just to breathe more comfortably at the crease.
This was evident in the way Shardul Thakur got the prized scalp of Joe Root (36) near the tea break. Root shaped up to play his favourite backfoot cut stroke for a single but ended up edging a skiddy ball from Thakur onto his stumps.
Earlier, in the first session, Thakur, whose twin half-centuries were critical in enforcing India’s ascendancy, had also taken the wicket of Rory Burns (50), who could only nick his wobbly outseam ball to the keeper.
The first session also saw the run-out of Dawid Malan following a mix-up with his partner Hameed. Such a massive communication error might not have been possible had India’s two best bowlers not made the batters feel just that more anxious to go for a risky single.
Umesh Yadav benefitted immensely from the cushion provided to him by Jadeja and Bumrah, and he could simply go after the wickets. He ran through England’s lower-order, including Chris Woakes (18), just after the tea break to complete India’s first win at The Oval in more than 50 years.
Brief scores
India 191 (Thakur 57, Kohli 50; Woakes 4/55, Robinson 3/38) & 466 Sharma 127, Pujara 61; Woakes 3/83, Robinson 2/105) beat England 290 Pope 81, Woakes 50; Yadav 3/76, Jadeja 2/36) & 210 Hameed 63, Burns 50; Yadav 3/60, Bumrah 2/27) by 157 runs.
