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The Independent
6 hours ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Full weather forecast as England and India clash in rain-disrupted final Test match at The Oval
The first day of the fifth Test match between England and India at The Oval was badly disrupted by heavy rain and thunderstorms. England led 2-1 coming into the final game, with India needing victory to draw the series. The tourists reached 72-2 from the opening 23 overs, played out under floodlights and gloomy skies, before the heavens opened to force an early lunch. And although play resumed at 3pm – with India captain Shubman Gill throwing away his wicket to a run-out 20 minutes later – rain again stopped play after half an hour. A blistering hot June and July is giving way to a wet start to August. Here is how the forecast looks over the coming days. Thursday 31 July 22C, heavy rain Thursday's rain did indeed fall as forecast, but clear skies are expected in the late afternoon and evening, raising the possibility of more play. Friday 1 August 21C, cloudy There is the possibility of showers, particularly around late morning and lunchtime, but the late afternoon is expected to be clearer with sunshine breaking through. Saturday 2 August 23C, sunny intervals Saturday is currently forecast to be the best weather of the Test match, with sunny spells throughout the day and little chance of rain, as it stands. Sunday 3 August 23C, thundery showers The forecast is not looking great on Sunday, however, with heavy rain and even thunderstorms expected through the morning and early afternoon. Monday 4 August 22C, light rain This match has every chance of going the distance, given the weather, but Monday's play could be curtailed with more rain forecast in the late afternoon, so organisers will need to take advantage of early sunny spells if this Test match is to produce a result.
News24
12 hours ago
- Sport
- News24
England v India, 5th Test
Live scoring on the fifth Test between England and India from The Oval in London...
Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Times
Stokes loss is a huge blow as England chase biggest scalp of Bazball era
The signs did not look good. On a cool, overcast Oval morning, Ben Stokes walked out to the middle but did not bother to unpack his kitbag. He watched his players practise in the nets for a while and then strolled back to the pavilion, shortly before announcing that he would miss the final Test against India with a significant tear of a shoulder muscle. His summer is over. Stokes's leadership and his return to top form as an all-rounder — he was man of the match at Old Trafford for his first hundred and first five-wicket haul in Tests for two years and eight years respectively — means his absence is a huge blow as England look to claim their biggest scalp of the Bazball era, and gives India another boost after their successful rearguard action in Manchester. It is also a massive disappointment for spectators before such a showpiece game. Although Stokes had intimated three days ago that he would be a likely starter at the Oval, he woke up very sore and stiff after Old Trafford, having bowled a long spell at the start of the fifth day. He went for a scan on Monday and the results, which came back on Tuesday, showed a grade-three tear, with a prognosis of six to ten weeks' recovery. Stokes contemplated playing as a batsman only, but discussions with the medical staff quickly put paid to that. There was a chance of making the injury worse and so common sense has prevailed, even though the series remains live. England stand little chance in the Ashes without him and right now there is little danger of him missing the start of that tour, something he could put at risk by playing here. Injuries are part and parcel of sport, of course, especially for someone at Stokes's age and stage of his career. Brendon McCullum had hoped, before the summer began, that Stokes would look after himself a little more, but the nature of the series and the nature of the man sucked his 34-year-old captain into some lengthy spells. Having not bowled a spell of more than six overs in the first two Tests, Stokes bowled shifts of nine and ten overs at Lord's when, he said, he took himself into some 'dark places', and then one of eight overs at Manchester as he pushed for victory. He has bowled more overs (140) than he has ever bowled in a series before and is the leading wicket-taker on either side. His return as a bowler has been the biggest fillip of the summer for England, but there has been a price to pay. It has been a peculiarly difficult series for bowlers in general because of the nature of the pitches and the schedule. The late-running Indian Premier League, an extensive home international fixture list (World Test Championship final, the Zimbabwe Test and sundry white-ball fixtures) and the ECB's determination to clear the decks in August for the Hundred means this series has been crammed into six weeks, between June 20 and August 4. The gaps between matches have been uneven, with two lots of back-to-back Tests separated by only three days in each case, a challenge exacerbated by the moribund nature of the pitches, with every game going the distance. It means that, with four changes, England have a make-do attack, while India delayed naming their side, so it was unclear whether Jasprit Bumrah would join Rishabh Pant on the sidelines. England have bowled 894 overs across the series, the most they will have sent down under McCullum and Stokes by the end of it. Like Stokes, Chris Woakes (167 overs) has bowled more overs in this series than any other in his career, and, though he has struggled with bat and ball, he remains the last man standing in a revamped attack. The Oval pitch was looking very green a day out. Surrey have done well in recent seasons by bowling first and backing their seamers, and so there was little option, in the absence of Stokes, but to use Jacob Bethell and Joe Root as part-time spinners, thus retaining four seamers, with Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton and Josh Tongue replacing Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer and Liam Dawson. Dawson's chances of making the Ashes have regressed after an ineffectual second innings in Manchester, and this will be only the second time in the McCullum era — the Ashes Test at Lord's in 2023 the other — where England have gone into a match without a specialist spinner. After making a fine impression in New Zealand at No3, Bethell will be given further opportunity in his first home Test, albeit at No6. Ollie Pope leads in Stokes's absence. Given that Stokes is so important to the balance of the side, any stand-in captain would have his work cut out, and this attack would have been hard to predict at the start of the summer, just as it was 12 months ago when, with Pope leading, Sri Lanka won a Test on this ground against an attack of Josh Hull, Olly Stone, Shoaib Bashir, Atkinson and Woakes. Shubman Gill described Stokes as a 'big miss' and the regret is that these two contrasting characters, who have been at the heart of everything this summer, will not get the chance to square off for the final round of what has been a fascinating and increasingly tetchy series. While Stokes has returned to his best as an all-rounder, Gill, too, has grown in stature as a player and leader having arrived here unproven in so many respects. With 722 runs, he has enjoyed a phenomenal run with the bat. There are a number of records he could break this week, not least the one run he needs to surpass Garry Sobers for the most runs in a series made by a visiting captain in England. Sunil Gavaskar's record for the most runs in a series for an Indian batsman — 774 runs made in the Caribbean in 1971 — is under threat, as is Don Bradman's record of 810 runs, set in 1936-37, for the most runs scored by a captain in any series. At times he has taken the wrong options with the team, picking conservatively and worrying too much about lower-order runs at the expense of taking wickets. Kuldeep Yadav, the wrist spinner, should have played at Leeds and Manchester, in particular, but they have missed that chance now that the weather has turned cooler and the pitch at the Oval is the greenest of the summer. India is a country that is impatient for success on the cricket field, and anything other than victory here would bring their third consecutive Test-series defeat, an outcome that would place the head coach, Gautam Gambhir, under significant scrutiny. In his pre-match briefing Gill hinted that Bumrah remains under consideration, which would be a final boost for them as both teams stagger wearily to the finish line. Fifth Test England v India The Oval Thursday, 11am TV Sky Sports Cricket
BBC News
a day ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'Stokes pushes the limit and gives England a peak into their nightmare'
Five overs, in case you're have been five overs of actual cricket in the time we've had a row about shaking hands, a Royal Rumble on the Oval square and a national state of emergency over another part of Ben Stokes' two of those incidents are little more than storms in teacups, one is anything but. Of all the possible combinations England could have fielded for the decisive final Test against India from Thursday, the absence of Stokes did not feature high on the list of announcement of the team on Wednesday was a jaw-dropping moment, mainly for the stark reality of what a Stokesless England team looks stakes are high here – a first series win against India since 2018 and first in a five-Test series against anyone in the same timeframe are up for grabs – and will be even higher in England's following Test, in Perth in it is an unthinkable blow to lose their talisman for this game, it also leaves England peering into their worst nightmare: taking on Australia in Australia without Ben Stokes. Depending how that series goes, there is an outside chance he has played his last Test in this again, Stokes has pushed himself beyond his limit. In 2021 it was surgery on a shattered finger, two years later an operation to sort out his left knee. There were two separate hamstring injuries in 2024, the latter requiring surgery. Now it is a grade-three muscle tear in a right shoulder he also injured playing in the Indian Premier League in has been sensational in this series, player of the match in each of the past two Tests and probably the difference between two evenly matched 17 wickets he has taken and 140 overs he has bowled are the most in a single series across his career. He has outbowled the great Jasprit Bumrah and regularly carried the England attack on his direct hit run out of Rishabh Pant in the third Test at Lord's changed the course of the match that ultimately gave England their 2-1 lead. His hundred at Old Trafford was a first in two years and made him only the fourth England man to register a five-wicket haul and century in the same it has come at a cost, raising the question of how much is too much, even for a superman like Stokes. As far back as 2018, then-England coach Trevor Bayliss was pleading with Stokes to look after himself, particularly when it came to his maniacal training habits. Now, as a 34-year-old, Stokes has toned down the training, still there is nothing that can hold him back in the heat of half a Ben Stokes all of the time better than a whole Ben Stokes half of the time? It's a moot point, simply because Stokes is incapable of reining it were in a similar situation last year, when Stokes suffered his first hamstring injury. He missed four Tests, the fourth of which was the first on the tour of Pakistan. Stokes' effort to get fit made him insular and grumpy, eventually taking it out on the team on the field in Multan, for which he later apologised. The hope is he has learned from that experience, and will not be weighed down at the beginning of the Ashes now, he will remain with the England team, once again led by Ollie Pope. There is a larger room in the England hotel set aside for the captain, which Stokes has not given over to Pope. That probably says plenty about who remains in is one of four changes from the Old Trafford Test, leaving an odd-looking England team. Out go the weary Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse, as well as spinner Liam Dawson, whose comeback after eight years in the wilderness lasted one match. It turns out Dawson is not the second coming of Daniel Vettori, and he is scrapping with Rehan Ahmed for a place on the Ashes come Jacob Bethell, who has played only one red-ball match in seven months; Gus Atkinson, one club game and one second XI fixture since May; and Jamie Overton, four first-class matches since September 2023. Josh Tongue is back after being dropped for the third Test. At 36, Chris Woakes plays all five injuries, workloads and selection decisions, England have been backed into a corner over their bowling attack. Along with those that have been driven into the ground over the past few weeks, Mark Wood and Shoaib Bashir are on the shelf, and Matthew Potts has disappeared from the Test Cook might have been useful on an Oval greentop, but looks to have been judged on a disappointing debut against Zimbabwe. Josh Hull played here last year and has not been seen since. Lancashire's Luke Wood was whispered about earlier in the summer. Maybe England should knock on the Sky commentary box and ask Stuart Broad to lace his boots won three out of four matches when Pope took charge last year, though the defeat did come here against Sri Lanka, one of the worst performances in the Bazball home side will instead be hoping for a repeat of 2023, the final Ashes Test. Back then, England arrived at The Oval on the back of a frustrating draw in Manchester, which could have turned momentum against them. They needed to win to square the series and duly did. Although India are set to be without Bumrah, they have won the other Test in this series in which he did not play. They will be buoyed by their escape at Old Trafford, which captain Shubman Gill said felt like a at the end of that fifth day have been pored over, probably because there was little excitement generated by the cricket teams had an understandable point of view. India were within their rights to want Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to reach centuries, while England can't be blamed for wanting to get off at the earliest opportunity after five sessions in the field. Still, there wasn't much sign of the humility Brendon McCullum asked for at the beginning of the Gill accused England of acting against the spirit of cricket during the third Test at Lord's. Quite how Gautam Gambhir's words to Oval groundsman Lee Fortis on Tuesday fit into the spirit of cricket is the high jinx have caught the attention of those in Australia, who have put the sandpaper down long enough to have their say on England's morals. If such tales are catnip down under, any doubts over Stokes' fitness will put a further spring in the baggy green is respected and feared by the Australians, even though he has not been at his chest-beating best on three previous tours there. There is a now a 114-day wait to see what sort of Stokes takes the field in the first Ashes then, there is a series for England to win, one that would rank among their best under Stokes, albeit with the skipper unable to see it started nearly seven weeks ago comes down to this. Gill and Joe Root. Bumrah and Archer. Bashir's finger and Pant's toe. Stokes and no Stokes. Handshakes and handbags. What a last dance.
France 24
a day ago
- Sport
- France 24
India's Gill says Oval groundsman caused 'unnecessary' row
Gambhir shared terse words on Tuesday with Lee Fortis at the Oval, the London venue for the fifth Test. India trail 2-1 in the series ahead of the deciding match, which starts on Thursday. Former India batsman Gambhir was caught on camera wagging his finger as Fortis towered over him, repeatedly stating: "You can't tell us what to do." Gambhir was also heard adding: "You're just the groundsman, nothing beyond." Surrey groundsman Fortis is understood to have been keeping a protective eye on the playing area during India's practice session, with plenty of cricket still to be played on it this season. But India have insisted they simply wanted to have a look at the pitch and had done nothing to spark any kind of reaction from Fortis. "What happened yesterday, I thought, is just absolutely unnecessary. I mean, it's not the first time that we were having a look at the wicket," Gill said on Wednesday. The skipper, who has scored 722 runs in the four Tests so far, added: "As a captain, I don't know what the fuss was all about." The series has become increasingly heated, with India refusing to shake hands on a draw early in the fourth Test in Manchester to allow Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja to reach centuries, a decision that angered England. Gill previously accused England of ignoring the "spirit of cricket" with time-wasting tactics in the third Test at Lord's, where India fast bowler Mohammed Siraj was fined for the aggressive send-off he gave to Ben Duckett. But he said the incidents were not connected. "I think I have already explained what happened at Lord's and about even the incident that happened on the last day in the previous Test," he said. "Both the teams have been very competitive. And sometimes when you are competitive, you know, in the heat of the moment, you do or say things that you might not do (otherwise). "But I think once the match is over, there is mutual respect between both the teams." Despite India's superb rearguard action to earn a draw in Manchester, Gambhir remains under pressure. Since he took over as head coach, India have won just two and lost eight out of 12 Tests.
