This was England’s third Test defeat of the summer but the inquest will surely be brief after a spellbinding win for IndiaForget about operas and fat ladies singing, you know a Test is over when India’s captain starts conducting. It happened here 24 minutes, five overs and two wickets after lunch on the final day, shortly after Ollie Pope’s stumps had been rearranged by Jasprit Bumrah. First a few overhead claps, then Virat Kohli extended his arms to full width and swayed them gently up and down, like an albatross in flight. Not an inappropriate bird, England might have thought, for Kohli to be impersonating. The pocket of the JM Finn stand that has been overwhelmingly populated by India’s blue...
The bowler who bamboozled England is one of the few players thriving in all three formats and is likely to get even betterThe signs were there, if you wanted to see them. England’s batsmen emerged for the start of day five full of vigour and hope, buoyed by their unbeaten start the previous evening and a crowd that believed, against the weight of history and perhaps its own better sense. The first run was greeted like a divine blessing. The first boundary from Rory Burns was roared every inch of its way to the rope.Meanwhile, at the other end, Jasprit Bumrah was quietly completing a spell of four overs for three runs. It was a day on which cricket’s master...
India took control of fourth Test in part because the hosts have lost the ability to apply pressure when it is urgently neededOne of the criticisms most frequently levelled at this England side is its obsession with Australia. The sense that, however stern or august their current assignment, they are always on some level looking ahead to the next Ashes tour. In this respect day four of the fourth Test was its own neat riposte: a day on which England were able to savour the unique privations of Australia without leaving their own backyard.On a stickily warm day at the Oval Joe Root’s side could treat themselves to the full, soul-destroying, as-live Ashes experience: a chastening, back-breaking, heel-jarring day in...
The India opener showed patience then panache to score an overdue first Test century on foreign soil and frustrate England Depending on how you look at it Rohit Sharma’s first Test century on foreign soil took him about five hours of actual game time, or the 23 hours or so that passed after he first took guard in the glaring late-afternoon sunshine towards the end of day two, or a little under eight years, since he made his debut as a 26-year-old against West Indies in Kolkata in November 2013. Whichever, it was another demonstration that in Test cricket you can never have too much patience, as Sharma will surely have reminded himself when he sent his 256th delivery, the...
All four results are possible as cricket and alcohol continue their long unbroken partnership despite the authorities’ wishesThree years ago, in one of its smarter moves, the Oval did away with disposable plastic beer cups and replaced them with reusable, stackable ones that you could keep all day and then return at the close of play for a £1 refund.Apart from the manifold environmental advantages, encouraging spectators to keep their beer cups had the pleasing fringe benefit of allowing them – and everyone else – to keep a running tally of their consumption. Continue reading...