Oval supported England in the first day of the fifth England-India Test with India struggling to 204/6 on a spicy, bowler-friendly pitch. Rain disturbances and conflicting bowling, barring Gus Atkinson, added to India’s miseries. In spite of strong fifty of Karun Nair aided by Washington Sundar, assistant coach of India Ryan ten Doeschate wishes they can reach 300, commending patient innings of Sai Sudharsan.
Day 1 of the fifth England-India Test at The Oval had a very English look and feel to it. Even after 20 days of cruel cricket, that feeling was missing, and the opening day in London gave plenty of it. Thanks to the weather, even the espresso machines had some satisfactory queues when play got underway.
The spectators had many choices to enjoy their cricket, but for the ones in the middle, patience was going to be their only companion. From the time wicket-keeper of England Ollie Pope asked India to bat in those challenging conditions, it was clear that this was going to be the intense investigation of the batters in the series so far. This pitch was the flavorful pitch of the tour, and it lived up to its billing with the assistance it provided to the quicks.
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There was change in the air, movement off the pitch, and the odd one kicked off the surface. The day slightly in England’s favour as India has 204/6 at the end of day with Karun Nair and Washington Sundar being the last reputed pair, but it could have been much worse had the bowlers used the conditions better.
Ten Doeschate told during the media interaction ” It’s a fair day, If we can push to 300, it will be a great score. Guys by and large did very well today. Sai Sudharsan played very nicely… two very good balls by Tongue,”
The coach noticed Gill’s run-out was a misjudgment from the captain.
Ten Doeschate added “He is in the touch of his life; he made batting look easy today. England bowled very nicely today, and we spoke about accumulating runs during the break. Guys did a nice job accumulating runs, but it was a misjudgment of the run,”
