'Thirty five runs or four wickets - rest well, if you can'

BBC News

3 days ago

What is it about this place?Finales. The Oval.Don Bradman walking off for a duck, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh arm in arm, Stuart Broad denying Australia one last time.The famous old ground has delivered again. Realistically, England have no right to be in with a shot of yet another successful run chase, but here we are.Harry Brook and Joe Root. Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna. Kumar Dharmasena and Ahsan Raza. Rain and bad light. 35 runs and four wickets. A long night staring into the soul.Monday morning will not be as raucous as Sunday evening, but the stakes will not be diminished by having to return at the beginning of the working week.For England, there are 35 runs standing between them and the biggest series win of the Bazball era.If they pull it off, it will be the second highest successful chase in their history and will break a 123-year-old record for the best chase by any team on this ground.They would do it with Ben Stokes not in the team and Chris Woakes absent for most of the match. England's two best all-rounders of the past 10 years have only two working shoulders between them.England have a patched up pace attack that is missing Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse and Mark Wood. Their first-choice spinner is injured. Jacob Bethell has been a part-time cricketer for the past two months and batted like it.England dropped six catches in the India second innings and gave away 38 runs in extras in their first – how important they look now.
At 106-3 on Sunday morning, England were toast, only for Yorkshire's finest to find individual inspiration to make the unlikely seem probable.On this ground 20 years ago, another epic series was on a knife edge. On that occasion, it was Kevin Pietersen belting Brett Lee into the stands that secured the Ashes for England. Two decades on and Harry Brook, the modern day spirit of KP, decided attack was the only was to go.For Joe Root, this Test was always likely to be emotional, a celebration of the life of his mentor Graham Thorpe. How fitting that Root would play with Thorpe-like cool at the home of the great left-hander. Even a heart of stone would have been moved by Root celebrating his hundred by pulling on Thorpe's trademark headband.Two contrasting centuries, a tired India attack flogged to all parts. Siraj treading on the boundary rope to reprieve Brook evoked memories of Trent Boult doing the same for Stokes in the 2019 World Cup final – another nerve-shredding Sunday.When Root and Brook were together, 200 runs to win seemed like a doddle. After they departed, 35 seemed impossible.India must wonder what they have to do to beat this England team. It was India on the wrong end of a chase of 378 at Edgbaston in 2022, then 371 at Headingley in June.But something stirred in Siraj, Krishna and Akash Deep. Perhaps it was the beat of the dhol drum that provided the soundtrack to India's last push.Brook's bat went further than the ball when he was caught at mid-off for 111. Bethell looked like what he is – a 21-year-old in his first home Test with only one first-class match since December – in scratching around for five off 31 balls. A wild hack and middle stump removed.Even the tension got to Root. Play and miss, play and miss, lbw review, edge behind. The Oval came unglued.It is hard to see how England would have won had the weather not intervened. Smith and Overton, the only Jamies to play Test cricket for England, were left with the task of resisting the touring pacemen and what felt like every Indian in London.The home side were the happier to scurry to the dressing room. The boos of the crowd when the close was confirmed probably sounded like sweet music.
What is left is mainly Surrey v India. Smith, Overton, then Gus Atkinson. Josh Tongue has not been dismissed in his six Test innings, but it's probably best not to rely on his runs.Woakes, not seen since leaving the field with his left arm in a makeshift sling on Thursday, was in his whites and ready to go on Sunday. Root said he had some throw downs to work out what was possible.If Woakes emerges on Monday, it will be the biggest act of bravery by an Englishman since James Bond stayed behind on the island in No Time To Die.India's bowlers will have the benefit of a night's rest and a second new ball available 3.4 overs into the fifth morning. The tourists might not want it, because the old ball has started to hoop.For England, 35 runs can be dented in a couple of big overs. Batting surely can't be harder than it was when the players were taken off on Sunday evening.What are the consequences for less than an hour's cricket on the fifth day? The difference between 3-1 and 2-2.The chance of a first series win against India in seven years and a first five-match series win against anyone in the same timeframe. The difference between heading to Australia as winners, or not.What a way to end it all.England's run chase at Headingley, Shubman Gill's epic at Edgbaston. Aggro and Stokes at Lord's. Rearguards and handshakegate at Old Trafford.All down to this.Thirty five runs or four wickets. Rest well, if you can.