London: The centre square at the Oval wore a deserted look till 30 minutes before start of play on the fourth morning. Unlike the other days of this final Test of the series, there weren’t players queuing up to go through their warmup drills. Yet, you could cut the tension all around with a knife. India were conserving their three strike bowlers — Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Akash Deep, while England’s Harry Brook and Joe Root took a few throwdowns and retired to the dressing room.These characters played lead roles in turning the arena into a bullring, throwing gruesome punches at each other before rain and bad light 75 minutes into the last session, took the series into its final dramatic fifth day. India will come back on Monday morning, four wickets away, with 34 runs in the bank, from finishing the series at 2-2. Brook batted like a man on steroids to score 111 off 98 while Root played the monk who had the entire field under his control as he hit 105 off 152 after they got together an hour into the first session with England, in pursuit of 374 on a tricky pitch, looking nervy at 106/3.
In 35 overs of imperious shot-making, they turned the Oval into a gladiatorial arena as England hurtled towards finishing the series just like they had started it — sauntering past a 370-plus target.But then Siraj and Krishna were not there to agree to a surrender with figures of 3/109 and 2/95. Siraj, like Ben Stokes did in the third Test at Lord’s, dug deep into his energy reserves and kept asking questions of Root’s defence. That resulted in Krishna finding Root’s outside edge to Dhruv Jurel to light up the match again under the dark grey London skies after Brook’s hoick off Akash Deep applied the brakes on England’s charge.In a spell of unchanged bowling after tea, Siraj and Krishna ensured India were still breathing following the damaging blows inflicted by Brook and Root. India will hope the duo has enough left in the tank to turn up one final time on Monday morning and prevent a 1-3 scoreline with Jamie Overton and Jamie Smith at the crease. After all, they were taking on two Yorkshiremen who were bullish about affirming that their ‘Bazball’ brand of cricket works. Root and Brook were advertising for the England team’s ‘we-will-chase-down-anything’ philosophy.Siraj and Prasidh Krishna had Ben Duckett and stand-in captain Ollie Pope under their spell in the first hour of the day. They were all over England with the pitch offering exaggerated movement and some uneven bounce. Duckett edging Krishna to second slip and Pope falling to Siraj LBW seemed a matter of time. Brook wasn’t having any of it; he turned up a bully.
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There are moments that define the course of a big game. Siraj stepping on to the long-leg boundary when Brook, batting on 19, had topedged a short ball from Krishna was clearly one. It was reminiscent of Trent Boult stepping onto the rope after catching Ben Stokes in the 2019 World Cup final. Monday morning will tell if India end up on the wrong side like New Zealand in 2019.It is true that Siraj was in a great rhythm deep into the morning session. He was still bowling at the peak of his powers even as it was his ninth innings of bowling extensive spells in the last two months. He was also fast exhausting his energy levels. He labored along with all his heart and passion. But his day out also highlighted that India were desperately short of another wicket-taking option. Akash Deep lacked the zip and Krishna battled hard to stay consistent with his line and length once Brook went on the rampage.India started and finished strong on Sunday. They will hope that the day’s afternoon session doesn’t cost them the series on Monday.
