India’s Krishna, Siraj rock England in series finale

England’s Ben Duckett scoops the ball in the fifth Test against India (Photo credits: AFP)

Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj took four wickets each as India fought back in the fifth and deciding Test against England at the Oval yesterday.

England were 129/1 in reply to India’s 224 all out as they threatened to build a substantial first-innings lead.

But they were eventually dismissed for 247, just 23 runs ahead, following a rain delay.

In a match India must win to end the series level at 2-2, the recalled Krishna had figures of 4/62 in 16 overs and fellow paceman Siraj 4/86 in 16.2.

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett shared a blistering first-wicket stand of 92 in just 13 overs after England paceman Gus Atkinson marked his return to Test cricket with a five-wicket haul.

Both openers fell either side of lunch, however, before stand-in England captain Ollie Pope, leading the side in place of the injured Ben Stokes, was lbw to Siraj for 22.

Crawley and Duckett dominated India’s attack with a blizzard of boundaries before Akash Deep sparked the latest flare-up of a fractious series.

Deep had Duckett caught behind for 43 off an attempted scoop. After Duckett’s exit, Crawley holed out off a miscued pull against Krishna for 64, with 56 of those runs coming in boundaries.

The usually mild-mannered Joe Root, second in the all-time list of Test match run scorers, found himself exchanging words with Krishna before he was lbw to Siraj for 29.

And when Siraj had Jacob Bethell lbw as the all-rounder played down the wrong line, England were 195/5.

Jamie Smith then saw his edged drive off Krishna well caught by Rahul at second slip.

Four balls later Jamie Overton was lbw to Krishna for a duck.

Atkinson hit two well-struck boundaries before he mistimed a pull of Krishna to mid-on.

Harry Brook gave England fans something to cheer with an extraordinary ‘falling’ sweep for six off Siraj during a 57-ball fifty.

But Siraj bowled him for 53, with Brook the last man out as the injured Chris Woakes was unable to bat.

AFP

Chief scores

India 224 (K. Nair 57, S. Sudharsan 38, W. Sundar 26; G. Atkinson 5/33, J. Tongue 3/57)
England 247 (Z. Crawley 64, H. Brook 53, B. Duckett 43; Prasidh Krishna 4/62, M. Siraj 4/86)