After being handed two lifelines in the field by England, Yashasvi Jaiswal took India to 75/2 with a fighting half century (51*) against England on the second day of the fifth Test at The Oval. India lead the fifth Test by 52 runs after losing the wickets of KL Rahul (7) and Sai Sudharsan (11) in their second innings in London. It was a day that saw 15 wickets fall and short rain interruptions before ending abruptly with light fading and umpires reportedly offering England stand-in captain Ollie Pope the option of bowling just spinners for the final 15 minutes, which he declined, possibly knowing how Jaiswal could punish them in those overs.
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Jaiswal was first by dropped by Harry Brook in second slip when on 20 runs, and then by Liam Dawson at deep fine leg when on 40. Jaiswal made those two chances count by staying unbeaten at the end of day 2 after an innings that saw him get to his half century off just 44 balls. At the end of the second day, Jaiswal had hit seven boundaries and two sixes.
Sai Sudharsan too was dropped once on seven runs, but unlike Jaiswal, he could not make the most of it, departing for 11.
The fate of the India vs England series rests on the ongoing fifth and final Test with England currently leading the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy by a 2-1 margin.
Siraj, who has played in all the Tests of the series, has taken 14 wickets in the series with an average of 39.71 in seven innings and has so far taken 114 wickets in 40 Test matches in his career. (AP Photo)
Earlier in the day, England were bundled out for 247, a slender first innings lead of 23 runs. India captain Shubman Gill bowled his three pacers — Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna — for 49.2 of the 51.2 overs with Ravindra Jadeja bowling just for two overs. All top 5 England batters got starts, but it was the batting of Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, who smashed 92 from 77 deliveries, that made the day entertaining.
Siraj and Krishna picked up four wickets each, with Krishna ending with his best Test bowling figures for the national team, 4/62. Of those four was the wicket of England’s top scorer Zak Crawley (64). But it was Siraj’s four wickets that were game-changing for India: he picked up the scalps of stand-in captain Ollie Pope (22), Joe Root (29), Harry Brook (53) and Jacob Bethell (6).
Siraj also became the leading wicket-taker for the series with 18 wickets. The next two bowlers in the race — Ben Stokes with 17 and Jasprit Bumrah with 14 — are not playing in this game. Josh Tongue is also on 14 wickets.
