Two days into the fourth test of a five-match series and still little separates England and India.
England eked out a first-innings lead of 99 runs thanks to half-centuries by recalled players Ollie Pope and Chris Woakes in a total of 290, a strong recovery considering the team was reeling at 62-5 at one stage at the Oval on Friday.
India’s openers were faced with a tough last hour to negotiate as shadows lengthened across the south London venue but they did it, with Rohit Sharma on 20, KL Rahul on 22 and the tourists closing on 43-0 after 16 overs.
India trailed by 56 runs but the match remained too close to call with three days to go. The series is tied at 1-1, with a test in Manchester to come starting next week.
Resuming on 53-3 and quickly losing nightwatchman Craig Overton (1) and Dawid Malan (31), England was thankful to Pope for anchoring crucial stands of 89 runs with Jonny Bairstow (37) and 71 runs with Moeen Ali (35) to creep ahead of the tourists’ meager Day 1 total of 191.
Pope, making his first appearance of the series, reached his first test fifty in his last 15 innings but fell short of converting it into only his second test century when he departed for 81, bowled by Shardul Thakur.
However, a 60-ball 50 by Woakes, a great batting option at No. 9, added crucial late-innings runs to frustrate India. The seamer has made an impressive return to the England team after more than a year away because of COVID-related reasons and then injury, having also taken figures of 4-55 to help bowl out India cheaply.
There was no top-order collapse in the second innings, though, with Sharma and Rahul looking compact and solid on a pitch that is looking better and better to bat on.
There were only a couple of chances for England, notably when Sharma edged Jimmy Anderson into the cordon but Rory Burns — at second slip — was unable to make the catch, saying a low sun was in his eyes. The 39-year-old Anderson did not look impressed.
Both openers had inside edges that just missed the stumps but they survived in the face of some tame offerings by England’s pace attack in the final overs.
The tails have been crucial for both teams so far at the Oval. Thakur’s blistering 57, off just 36 balls, enabled India to post a competitive total from a perilous position of 127-7 in its first innings, while Woakes’ sixth test half-century propelled England to what amounted to a decent lead in a low-scoring match.
The pitch at the Oval is notoriously slow to deteriorate, so India can be confident of a good track on Day 3 before spin becomes more of an option on Days 4 and 5.
In a bizarre incident in the morning session, a man dressed in full cricket whites slipped past stewards and ran onto the field of play before bumping into Bairstow, who was batting for England at the time.
The intruder was escorted off the field and later arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police. He remained in custody on Friday evening.
The man in question, Daniel Jarvis, is a self-ascribed YouTube prankster who calls himself “Jarvo.” He also breached the field in the previous two tests — at Lord’s and Headingley — wearing a cricket uniform on each occasion.
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