4th Test | Final Day Live Updates: India blow England away to take 2-1 lead at the Oval

Shardul Thakur could not set a foot wrong in this Test and he almost uprooted England’s chance of winning or drawing the fourth Test at the Oval.

Returning to bowl with the old ball, Shardul dismissed Joe Root with an innocuous delivery and almost wiped England out of the Test.

Jasprit Bumrah put his hands up just when India desperately needed to get into the England middle order and produced a bowling spell for the ages.

First, he castled Ollie Pope with a beauty that nipped back in to take his stumps and followed with a toe crusher to bowl Jonny Bairstow.

Those wickets in a six-over long spell provided India with a significant position in the game and he was challenging even an in-form Joe Root with his swinging yorkers.

Well, it was always coming for Jadeja since Kohli had introduced him in the attack very early on the fourth day but rather it came very late for him. Having seen Malan saved on an umpire’s call and Hameed getting dropped by Siraj at mid-on, Jadeja got better of Hameed by hitting his stumps. 

India were delighted to send Rory Burns, who was found out against an unplayable delivery off Shardul Thakur and Dawid Malan, who gifted his wicket away.

However, Joe Root is looking fluent as ever he has looked in the series and Haseen Hameed has put his head down to thwart the Indian bowling attack except for a rash slog sweep that was dropped by Mohammed Siraj.

England need more than 230 runs from the last two sessions of the game while India are in pursuit of eight more wickets. Ravindra Jadeja, who is supposed to be their main man with the ball has settled into a nice rhythm and would have had both Hameed and Malan in quick succession.

Both the side will look to start the afternoon session on a strong note and especially India will be desperate to send Root back to the pavilion as soon as they get back to the field. However, there isn’t much help for the pacers on this wicket and Kohli will have to marshall his troops inspiringly well to produce unplayable deliveries like Shardul did to dismiss Burns in the first session.

Hameed has been batting with such precision and control but a sudden out of character slog seep provided India with a massive opportunity. India were desperate for his departure but Mohammed Siraj dropped an absolute sitter at mid-on and handed Hameed a big reprieve.

The opening partnership between Hameed and Burns was becoming a nightmare for the Indian bowlers as they had taken it to 100 runs. Burns scored fifty at the same time as England reached the three-figure mark. 

However, their celebrations were short-lived as Shardul Thakur corrected his line and length to produce an unlikely jaffa that took the edge of Burns’ bat and India earned their first wicket.

Kohli would hope the trend of “one brings two” will continue on the final day as well with another left-hander Dawid Malan coming to bat at number three for England.

After four eventful days of cricket between the two sides, India and England are in for another close contest on the final day of the fourth Test to take a 2-21 lead in what has been a keenly contested series.

None of the sides is out of the contention to travel to Manchester with a 2-1 lead and that augurs the best outlook for the Virat Kohli and Joe Root-led sides.

India are in desperate need of all 10 England wickets while the hosts need 291 runs on the final day to take a comprehensive lead. They were set an almost improbable target of 368 runs by India but the unbeatne partnership between Haseeb Hameed and Rory Burns has given them a big hope on the final day.

India will hope Ravindra Jadeja will get enough purchase from the rough patches developing outside the off stump of the left-hander batsmen while the pace quartet of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur will create enough opportunities to get through the England abetting lien up.