If there was good news for Indian cricket, it wasn’t happening at the Oval. For that you needed to be 39 miles away at Wormsley, where Mithali Raj’s women humbled England in the lone Test and on radio, Sunil Gavaskar said: “Get the women here.”
Such has been M.S. Dhoni’s men’s plight on a tour that has steadily gone downhill.
A poor first innings (148), that with due respect to the England fast bowlers, was self-inflicted, and a sunny Saturday morning which provided better weather conditions for the host batsmen, only made it worse in the fifth and final Test here.
Despite an afternoon session in which India grabbed four England wickets before tea, the host finished with 385 for seven at close on the second day, 237 runs ahead.
A large chunk of England’s runs came from two partnerships — an 80-run sixth-wicket bond between Joe Root (92 batting) and Jos Buttler (45) and an alliance of southpaws in which Alastair Cook (79) and Gary Balance (64) raised 125 for the second wicket.
Root and Buttler meshed well in the last session and countered the new ball positively while the scares, a few squirted through slips, remained minimal. Buttler succumbed to a persevering Ishant Sharma while Chris Woakes edged one down the leg-side from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. It fitted into England’s pattern of losing wickets in clusters.
Importantly for Cook and coach Peter Moores, the intervening period yielded runs and Root’s late flourish — the cheeky shots matched by a classical straight drive off Stuart Binny — held India firmly down.
Before Root and Buttler lent a second wind to the England innings, Cook and Ballance played contrasting knocks.
Cook’s stint commenced well but once he went past 60, he became tentative around the off-stump. Balance, meanwhile, initially feathered a few behind the wicket but once he got his eye in, the shots flowed.
The England captain led a charmed life. On 65, Cook poked at Varun Aaron who, operating from around the wicket, cramped the batsman while getting one to seam just a shade away. Again on 70, the England skipper edged, this time off R. Ashwin.
On both occasions, the batsman looked back and wondered about his luck as Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane fluffed relatively simple catches.
There was no lucky hundred for Cook though. He pushed forward at Aaron and found the snick dip towards slip, where Vijay crouched low to his right and caught a sharp chance.
Vijay’s redemption also ushered in a stretch of time in which India picked up three wickets in a span of 34 deliveries.
Ballance tamely prodded Ashwin straight to Cheteshwar Pujara at silly point and Ian Bell fell to Ishant Sharma’s fine delivery that kissed the blade and warmed Dhoni’s gloves.
England was 204 for four and India sniffed a chance of restricting its eventual deficit. Next man Ali defied the leg-trap and showed a deft touch in despatching Aaron twice for fours towards square-leg and mid-wicket. But Ali’s exit engineered by Ashwin as the batsman played a nothing-shot and chopped the ball onto his stumps didn’t affect England’s overall dominance.
That lingered right from the morning even after Sam Robson lost his timber to Aaron. For the rest of the first session, England sailed smooth as Cook and Ballance helped their team cruise towards India’s score.
Cook was more in control while Ballance wavered between the edged fours and the superb drives, with the one off Ashwin helping the host draw level with India’s total just at the stroke of lunch.
