LONDON: Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj took four wickets each as India fought back in the fifth and deciding Test against England at the Oval on Friday.
England were 129-1 in reply to India’s 224 all out as they threatened to build a substantial first-innings lead. But they were dismissed for 247, just 23 runs ahead, following a rain delay.
In a match India must win to end the series level at 2-2, the recalled Krishna had figures of 4-62 in 16 overs and fellow paceman Siraj 4-86 in 16.2.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett shared a blistering first-wicket stand of 92 in just 13 overs after England paceman Gus Atkinson marked his return to Test cricket with a five-wicket haul.
Both openers fell either side of lunch, however, before stand-in England captain Ollie Pope, leading the side in place of injured Ben Stokes, was lbw to Siraj for 22.
Crawley and Duckett dominated India’s attack with a blizzard of boundaries before Akash Deep sparked the latest flare-up of a fractious series.
Deep had Duckett caught behind for 43 off an attempted scoop, then put his arm round the unimpressed batsman’s shoulder and appeared to say a few words as he walked off.
India’s K.L. Rahul pulled Deep away from Duckett before the bowler could say anything else.
Ater Duckett’s exit, Crawley holed out off a miscued pull against Krishna for 64, with 56 of those runs coming in boundaries.
Joe Root found himself exchanging words with Krishna before he was lbw to Siraj for 29.
And when Siraj had Jacob Bethell lbw as the all-rounder played down the wrong line, England were 195-5. Jamie Smith then saw his edged drive off Krishna well caught by Rahul at second slip. Four balls later Jamie Overton was lbw to Krishna for a duck. Atkinson hit two boundaries before he mistimed a pull off Krishna.
Harry Brook played an extraordinary ‘falling’ sweep for six off Siraj during a 57-ball fifty. But Siraj bowled him for 53, with Brook the last man out as injured Chris Woakes was unable to bat.
England suffered a setback before Friday’s play, with paceman Woakes effectively ruled out of the rest of the match after suffering a shoulder injury on Thursday. But Atkinson responded with 5-33 in 21.4 overs after striking twice on Thursday, when he also ran out Gill.
The 27-year-old’s fourth five-wicket haul in just 13 Tests was all the more creditable as this was Atkinson’s first senior match since being sidelined with hamstring trouble following a one-off Test against Zimbabwe in May.
India, who resumed on 204-6, lost their last four wickets for just 20 more runs in 5.4 overs on Friday.
SCOREBOARD
INDIA (1st Innings, overnight 204-6):
Y. Jaiswal lbw b Atkinson 2
K.L. Rahul b Woakes 14
S. Sudharsan c Smith b Tongue 38
S. Gill run out (Atkinson) 21
K. Nair lbw b Tongue 57
R. Jadeja c Smith b Tongue 9
D. Jurel c Brook b Atkinson 19
W. Sundar c Overton b Atkinson 26
A. Deep not out 0
M. Siraj b Atkinson 0
P. Krishna c Smith b Atkinson 0
EXTRAS (B-12, LB-6, NB-4, W-16) 38
TOTAL (all out, 69.4 overs) 224
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-10 (Jaiswal), 2-38 (Rahul), 3-83 (Gill), 4-101 (Sudharsan), 5-123 (Jadeja), 6-153 (Jurel), 7-218 (Nair), 8-220 (Sundar), 9-224 (Siraj)
BOWLING: Woakes 14-1-46-1, Atkinson 21.4-8-33-5 (4nb, 1w), Tongue 16-4-57-3 (4w), Overton 16-0-66-0 (2w), Bethell 2-1-4-0
ENGLAND (1st Innings):
Z. Crawley c Jadeja b Krishna 64
B. Duckett c Jurel b Deep 43
O. Pope lbw b Siraj 22
J. Root lbw b Siraj 29
H. Brook b Siraj 53
J. Bethell lbw b Siraj 6
J. Smith c Rahul b Krishna 8
J. Overton lbw b Krishna 0
G. Atkinson c Deep b Krishna 11
J. Tongue not out 0
EXTRAS (B-6, LB-2, N-3) 11
TOTAL (all out, 51.2 overs) 247
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-92 (Duckett), 2-129 (Crawley), 3-142 (Pope) 4-175 (Root), 5-195 (Bethell), 6-215 (Smith), 7-215 (Overton), 8-235 (Atkinson), 9-247 (Brook)
DID NOT BAT: C. Woakes
BOWLING: Siraj 16.2-1-86-4, Deep 17-0-80-1 (1nb), Krishna 16-1-62-4 (2nb), Jadeja 2-0-11-0
Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2025
