India and England put on a fantastic advertisement for test cricket in the fourth test as the game went into Day 5 with both teams having an equal opportunity to win.
The visitors put in a tremendous bowling performance to take 10 wickets and win by 157 runs. India is now 2-1 up in the five match test series.
India was trounced in the third test as they were beaten by an innings and 76 runs.
A lot of English fans expected England to use that momentum to register another comfortable win at the Oval as India had not won a test match at the Oval for the last 50 years.
India batted first and once again had a batting collapse with only the captain Virat Kohli and Shardul Thakur got past 50. They were bowled out for 191 and it looked like they were going to struggle for the rest of the test. However, the bowlers showed amazing fight as they managed to bowl out England for 290.
England were in command of the game with a 99 run lead in the first innings but the Indian batsman fought back with Rohit Sharma scoring a brilliant century that got him the player of the match award. A number of other batsmen also put their hands up with Cheteshwar Pujara (61), V Kohli (44), Rishabh Pant (50) and S Thakur (60) all making valuable contributions.
Jasprit Bumrah (24) and Umesh Yadav (25) also made valuable runs down the order that made it difficult for England to chase on the final day.
England & Wales Cricket Board
England had 10 wickets intact on the final day and had less than 300 to chase in three sessions. The pitch had no demons in it and it looked like it was going to be an enthralling day for test cricket for the fans.
Joe Root held the key for England and once he fell to S Thakur, the rest of the batsmen showed very little resistance. The bowlers shared the wickets among themselves with only Mohammed Siraj not picking up any scalps.
Virat Kohli was delighted with the win and praised his team for bouncing back after a tough defeat in the third test. The fifth and final test will start on Sep 10 and will take place in Manchester, can England tie the series?.
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