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Left arm in a sling, face wrought with agony, Chris Woakes could only look on helplessly from the far end as Mohammed Siraj detonated Gus Atkinson’s off stump at 11.56am on Monday morning to seal a six-run triumph for India and end one of the most intense hours of Test cricket ever witnessed.
A series that seemed to have it all saved its very best for last, a mini-session of unrivalled gut-twisting drama that instantly went down as an all-time classic. Needing 35 runs to chase down 374, four wickets in hand, England collapsed amid a wall of Indian noise inside a packed Oval and the first Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy was shared with a 2-2 scoreline.
It was fitting that Siraj should be the man to land the final blow here, India’s firecracker the only fast bowler to go the distance in a series that chewed players up and spat them out over 25 gruelling days. England had been cruising home a day earlier, driven by centuries from Harry Brook and Joe Root, only for Siraj to bend the script to his will with a famous five-wicket haul.
Woakes was the only other seamer to play all five but a dislocated shoulder on day one left him a helpless bystander until, upon the fall of Josh Tongue’s wicket, 17 runs still needed, he walked down the steps to a standing ovation. Injured left arm hidden under his cable-knit, bat in one hand, one of England’s most selfless cricketers answered his country’s call.
But this was India’s day, a day in which the lap of honour that Shubman Gill led his side on for levelling a series felt anything but self-indulgent. From the moment Woakes had the tourists two for none on the fourth day in Manchester – 300-plus runs behind and 2-1 down in the series – they fought tooth and nail to earn a deserved share of the spoils.
In the end Woakes did not face a ball, yet the simple running was leaving him in serious distress every time. Atkinson protected his partner as the pair scampered a bye, a two, and single to keep it that way, while one full-blooded heave was tipped over the boundary for six by Akash Deep.
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One more would have tied the scores and secured a 3-1 series victory for the hosts. But Siraj, the man who turned a grey, mizzly morning in south London into a seismic psychodrama removing Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton cheaply, simply could not be denied. Some 20,000 people watched just 56 minutes of action and walked out with jaws on the ground.
More to follow…
