LONDON – India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s sparkling hundred in the fifth and deciding Test at the Oval yesterdday left England needing to break a record that has stood for over a hundred years in their quest for a 3-1 series win.
India were dismissed for 396 in their second innings on the third day in south London as the tourists set England a target of 374 to win with just over two days’ play remaining.
At stumps England were 50-1 with Ben Duckett still at the crease on 34. Fellow opener Zak Crawley was dismissed with the last ball of the day when Mohammad Siraj bowled him with a brilliant yorker.
No side, however, have made more to win in the fourth innings of a Test at the Oval than England’s 263 in a celebrated one-wicket victory over arch-rivals Australia back in 1902.
Jaiswal was out shortly before tea for 118, his second hundred of the series after the 23-year-old left-hander’s 101 in the first Test at Headingley.
He received superb support from Akash Deep in a third-wicket partnership of 107, with the paceman belying his status as a nightwatchman with an accomplished 66 — his maiden Test fifty.
Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, both fresh from hundreds in the drawn fourth Test at Old Trafford, kept the runs coming with contrasting fifties.
Sundar launched a brutal assault after a depleted England took the new ball.
England, a bowler down after Chris Woakes suffered a shoulder injury diving in the field on Thursday, were too often wayward and further harmed their own cause by dropping six catches in the innings, with Jaiswal reprieved three times.
India had resumed on 75-2, with Woakes’ absence increasing the pressure on England’s three remaining fast bowlers — Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue and Jamie Overton.
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