India vs England 2021
It is lunch at The Oval on Day 5, the sun beating down an almost sarcastic reminder of the hot summer that never materialised, England 131/2 and all results in theory still on the table.
India have bowled well, but the pitch has looked increasingly flat and the home supporters are perhaps slowly starting to believe that England might yet escape this match unscathed, a tantalising series decider already starting to take shape in their mind’s eye.
It is a train of thought that even CricViz’s WinViz algorithm is beginning to heavily entertain, backing the draw at 66% ahead of an India victory at 24% and the implausible miracle of an England win at 10%.
All but the most optimistic of England fans know though that the road to safety is far longer than the two remaining sessions would make it appear – collapse stalks this England team from the shadows, always round the corner and waiting to pounce from one good spell of bowling.
That spell arrives in the third over of the afternoon. The door opened by Ravindra Jadeja, then kicked down and set on fire by Jasprit Bumrah.
It has not been the series of Jadeja’s career, he came into this Test with just two wickets from three games – suffering even more by comparison with the imagined feats of the still omitted Ravichandran Ashwin. On Day 5 though with rough to aim at, this is a situation that would have any spinner licking their lips.
It is into this rough he aims to remove the obdurate Haseeb Hameed, ripping one from leg to off, the ball clattering the stumps, the roar from the stands packed with Indian supporters, immediate and boisterous.
India are on the hunt now, Bumrah smelling blood, the malevolence capable from each delivery only heightened by its juxtaposition with the almost half-hearted shuffle to the crease that precedes it.
India’s Jasprit Bumrah, right, celebrates with India’s Ajinkya Rahane after taking the wicket of England’s Jonny Bairstow on Day 5 of the fourth Test match at The Oval. AP
Bumrah has 99 Test wickets to his name and the concourses behind the stands – usually still littered with spectators lingering a little longer from the lunch break – are empty, five days in and this match is in the process of being decided.
Ollie Pope might well be the next great English batting hope but he was powerless here to resist the twin forces of Bumrah and inevitability. Full ball, stumps splattered, 100 Test wickets claimed.
Joe Root just about plays out a Jadeja maiden – Virat Kohli still finding time to unsuccessfully review an LBW shout from the last ball – and then the real game begins again. Bumrah vs England, the match on the line.
Jonny Bairstow might well have looked in good touch since his recall to the side, but he too is no match for Bumrah, then again few would have been against the inswinging yorker that zones in on his stumps.
Indian supporters are jubilant, stirred on by Kohli at every opportunity, the forlorn parping of the Barmy Army trumpeter drowned out by thousands of excited cheers and screams, a 2-1 series lead racing ever closer to the foreground.
Like a picador sticking a bull already clearly resigned to its fate, Jadeja returns, Moeen Ali snaffled at short leg prodding tamely forward for England’s second consecutive duck, the crowd barely becalmed from India’s last success somehow finding more decibels with which to shower their team.
There have been less than nine overs since Lunch, but in that time all but one outcome has been firmly swept from the table, England’s middle order has been ritually sacrificed, four wickets lost and a Test match won.
