India stutter on a rain-hit day

London: Indian batters stuttered on a stop-start day as the fifth and final Test got off to a damp start with England’s make-shift attack relishing the gloomy weather here on Thursday.

Asked to take the first strike in typical English conditions on offer by stand-in home skipper Ollie Pope after his Indian counterpart Shubman Gill lost a fifth toss in a row, the visitors’ did the hard yards of getting their eye in pretty well, but two moments of lapse in concentration saw them in a spot of bother at 85/3 at tea when rain stopped play for a second time at The Oval.

Since having a first look at the pitch on Wednesday, the Indians knew the surface on offer for the series would be completely different from the four they had played previously. Head groundkeeper Lee Fortis, like he’s been doing for all of Surrey’s games since April 2023, chose to keep the grass on the pitch, which meant it was going to offer plenty of help for the pacers. Overnight rain and overcast skies just gave the fast bowlers more armoury, something that they’ve not been presented with all series. So it was no brainer that a captain winning the toss was going to bowl first, and that’s what England did.

England got off to a perfect start, thanks to a superb referral from Pope, when Gus Atkinson trapped Yashasvi Jaiswal leg-before in the fourth over of the day. There were two sounds when Jaiswal was trapped on the pads, and umpire Ahsan Raza turned down England’s appeal, seemingly thinking the ball could have taken an inside edge onto the pads. Pope, who had lost 14 successive referrals during the home Sri Lanka series in 2024 when he stood in for an injured Ben Stokes, gambled on taking a review. To his joy, there wasn’t any inside edge, and Jaiswal was forced to depart. Thereafter, despite the conditions being helpful, England’s makeshift attack erred in their lines. Trying to get the ball to swing, they ended up bowling all over the place, conceding as many as 15 wides in 29 overs. All the in-form KL Rahul and Sai Sudharsan had to do was see out a handful of good balls, mostly from Chris Woakes, as there wasn’t much danger caused by the likes of Atkinson, Josh Tongue or Jamie Overton. And the duo did that nicely before a false shot from Rahul against the run of play ended his stay. Rahul chose to cut a Woakes delivery that was close to him and he ended up chopping it onto his stumps.

The series’ leading run-maker then joined forces with his Gujarat Titans’ star performer Sudharsan. England continued to dish out average stuff and they motored along smoothly, even upping the run-rate before a sudden thunderstorm about eight minutes before lunch stalled play for a while. Action resumed after two hours and Gill didn’t look like he was in the dressing room for that long but a batter out in the middle for a long time as he cracked a gorgeous cover drive off Atkinson. Gill, who was trying to overtake Sunil Gavaskar’s record (774) for most runs in a Test series, looked like he was ready to erase another record in a career-defining series. He defended brilliantly, pulling superbly and driving handsomely. He looked like a man on a mission until committing harakiri in the second over after lunch.

After dabbing the ball to short cover, he called for a non-existent single when Sudharshan rightly sent him back. Gill had already raced off the blocks and slipped slightly while trying to turn back.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA (I Innings): Jaiswal lbw Atkinson  2 (9b) Rahul b Woakes  14 (40b 1x4) Sudharsan (batting)  28 (84b 4x4) Gill (run out)  21 (35b 4x4) Nair (batting)  0 (8b) Extras (LB-3 NB-2 W-15)  20 TOTAL (for 3 wkts 29 overs)  85 Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Jaiswal) 2-38 (Rahul) 3-83 (Gill). Bowling: Woakes 9-0-28-1 Atkinson 9-3-13-1 (w-1 nb-2) Tongue 5-2-18-0 (w-3) Overton 6-0-23-0 (w-2).