AA Edit | Cricket The Real Winner In An Enthralling Test Series

In a fairytale finish, Team India won the fifth Test of an enthralling series, snatching victory from the very jaws of defeat just one match after having clung on to a draw to give themselves a chance to level the series in the decider. The Test victory at The Oval — by a mere six runs — was one for the ages and it helped India share the honours at 2-2.

There was poetic justice for the lion-hearted pace bowler Mohammad Siraj who redeemed himself after misjudging the boundary line in what may have been a contest-clinching catch off Harry Brook whose counterattacking century, along with Joe Root’s more prosaic hundred, had put England in the driver’s seat in a historic chase.

Siraj’s indefatigable performance in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, whose workload management saw him pick and choose when and where he would play, swung the tide in a series that will be spoken about for a long time to come as one of the most dramatic in decades. It was a long and sustained advertisement for the attractions of a slow burning but intense drama of Test match cricket.

Every seat was sold at The Oval for the short session to the finish on the final day that saw the chances of Team England seal a series win blown away by the relentless attack of India’s fast bowlers Siraj and Prasidh Krishna. And yet the honours were only even, which itself is a splendid performance by a new look side, led by a young captain in Shubman Gill who was also prolific with the bat, displaying the characteristic of fighting all the way until a match is won or lost.

As the pendulum of fortunes swung wildly through the series, the ability of Team India to withstand the mental challenge of Test cricket seemed to be in some doubt as a couple of batting collapses saw England win the opening Test. But the team came back brilliantly in the very next Test, but only to fold against a clear chance to go ahead when the top batsmen failed to meet a moderate target of 193 at Lord’s.

There was drama that kept spectators and fans in thrall throughout 25 days of cricket with little byplays spicing up the proceedings as the players went at each other, with Team India refusing to cow down and cranking up its own behaviour to match England in a war of words and sledges even as accusations of gamesmanship were flying around the arena.

Team India showed that it was not averse to taking on a tough new image in which it was going to play the game very hard, with on-field theatrics too involving the opposition. But it was not just the verbal in which the team was showing a new determination. In grittily drawing the fourth Test with allrounders Ravi Jadeja and Washington Sundar shining with centuries they made after refusing the offer of “stumps” by the England captain, the team showed immense ability and self-confidence to stage fightbacks.

There were dramatic shows of heroism in cricketers going through the pain barrier to play on as Rishabh Pant and Ben Stokes did. There were any number of scintillating performances by players of both sides. But, at the end of the day, it was the game, especially Test match cricket that is said to be dying in the modern age of instant gratification offered by the white ball T20 format, which proved the winner.