India vs England 5th Test: Overcast sky, green pitch, moving ball - welcome to England, Day 1

Time of India

a day ago

The Oval cricket ground (AP Photo)
TimesofIndia.com in London: Overcast sky, green pitch, rain interruptions, enough for the bowlers all day, and hard work for the batters. Day 1 of the fifth England-India Test at The Oval had a very English look and feel to it.
Even after 20 days of hard-fought cricket, that feeling was missing, and the opening day in London gave plenty of it. The beer taps continued to flow in the stands, but for a change, thanks to the weather, even the espresso machines had some decent queues when play got underway.
The spectators had plenty of options to enjoy their cricket, but for the ones in the middle, patience was going to be their only companion. From the time Ollie Pope asked India to bat in those challenging conditions, it was clear that this was going to be the sternest examination of the batters in the series so far.
This was the spiciest pitch of the tour, and it lived up to its billing with the assistance it provided to the quicks.
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There was activity in the air, movement off the pitch, and the odd one kicked off the surface. 204/6 has left the day slightly in England's favour, with Karun Nair and Washington Sundar being the last recognised pair, but it could have been much worse had the bowlers used the conditions better.
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Undo
Apart from Gus Atkinson, the others lacked consistent control, and there were looseners which allowed a release shot here and there.
It wasn't easy to deal with the moving Dukes, and rain interruptions only made life more difficult for the batters. Two, read KL Rahul and Dhruv Jurel, were guilty of throwing it away, one, read Shubman Gill, misjudged a run, and the remaining three got out to very good deliveries. Those three good deliveries were always going to come their way in these conditions, but it was the previous bunch of three which could have been avoided.
England did release the steam when Karun Nair did the repair job, first with Dhruv Jurel and then with Sundar, but it could have been a much worse day for the hosts had those three dismissals not happened. India assistant coach
Ryan ten Doeschate
summed up the day as "fair" and felt if they can stretch to 300, it will be a job well done by the batters. He lauded Sai Sudharsan for his patient knock before getting dismissed by a Josh Tongue peach!
"It's a fair day.
If we can push to 300, it will be a great score. Guys by and large did very well today. Sai Sudharsan played very nicely… two very good balls by Tongue," said ten Doeschate during the media interaction.
Ryan ten Doeschate press conference: On Jasprit Bumrah missing out, Shubman Gill run out, batting
The coach felt Gill's run-out was a misjudgment from the skipper.
"He is in the touch of his life; he made batting look easy today. England bowled very nicely today, and we spoke about accumulating runs during the break. Guys did a nice job accumulating runs, but it was a misjudgment of the run," added ten Doeschate.
It was a bizarre day of play that had everything: a bowler sprayed all over but bowled two unplayable deliveries; a player who was not sure of playing in this game scored a fighting unbeaten fifty; and a series that was played on very batting-friendly surfaces dished out the spiciest track—for the game in which both Jasprit Bumrah and
Jofra Archer
didn't feature in the Playing XI.
When Nair and Sundar come out to bat on the second day, they will be carrying the familiar feeling of not feeling set, no matter what score you are batting on. English conditions for you!
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