A day that began with England and their supporters daring to dream ended with India the side celebrating a stirring victory. The Oval witnessed their first series win on English soil 50 years ago and, now 2-1 up with one to play, Virat Kohli’s class of 2021 have taken a significant step towards their own slice of history.
India’s bowlers produced a sensational effort on the final day of the fourth Test to end a 50-year wait for victory at the iconic Oval ground on Monday. India’s only previous win at the London venue of the first-ever Test played 141 years ago was in 1971 when they clinched a historic first series in England.
The moment came in familiar fashion, Jimmy Anderson having trudged out to the middle with hopes of securing a record run chase of 368 long since evaporated. Umesh Yadav persuaded the second new ball to rear off the supposedly dead surface for a regulation caught behind, something swiftly confirmed by Snicko.
Having been skittled for 191 on the opening day and then conceded a 99-run first-innings lead, the tourists had become only the second team to overcome such a sizable deficit in SE11.
That the first came back in 1902 – Jessop’s match – said plenty about a turnaround built on a host of players delivering for Kohli, be it Rohit Sharma’s first century outside India, a fine all-round game of two half-centuries and three wickets for Shardul Thakur or a game-breaking two-wicket burst by Jasprit Bumrah on the final afternoon that underlined this remarkable fast-bowler’s all-format excellence. Kohli had a genuine trump card in Bumrah and in a dizzying 30-minute spell after lunch the pair combined to devastating effect.
Along with the wicket of Anderson sealing the result there were a good few echoes, too, of the final day at Lord’s earlier in the series when Kohli had called on his players to unleash 60 overs of “hell” and was rewarded with the kind of surging, swarming performance that has long been the hallmark of the great sides.
England, echoing Panesar in the Mastermind chair a couple of years ago, simply ran out of answers.