Wasteful England flattered by scorecard as Chris Woakes blow gives sour end

It remains to be seen whether we get the stirring end this series deserves, but there was a decidedly end-of-term feeling swirling around the Oval on Thursday. Rain didn’t help, of course, nor did the absence from the stage of some of the biggest stars, and there were signs of staleness, as well as rustiness, from those who were involved.

Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah — four thrilling cricketers — were confirmed absent for various reasons at the toss. By 7pm, 30 minutes before the end of an extended day, Chris Woakes, one of only two ever-present seamers along with Mohammed Siraj, looked as though his series was also done when he was helped from the field with what looked like a dislocated left shoulder.

Off the fifth ball of the 57th over, bowled by Jamie Overton, Woakes chased the ball to the long-off boundary after a sweet drive from Karun Nair. He dived and, in the process of flicking the ball back to prevent a boundary, damaged his shoulder, which was immediately placed in a makeshift sling. It will be a surprise if he can take further part in the game, which is a problem given how badly Josh Tongue and Overton bowled in the most helpful conditions of the series.

Each side made four changes. India, asked to bat, self-sabotaged to some degree when Shubman Gill ran himself out, having got himself in, but England’s reconstituted attack struggled for consistency all day, even though Gus Atkinson was somewhere near his best. It is not always wise to judge a performance by the scorecard and although India struggled to 204 for six, England were flattered by it.

It was overcast until very late in proceedings; the pitch remained green about the gills and it was also a tricky day for batting because of interruptions that resulted in only 64 overs being bowled. There was a stoppage for a cloudburst just before lunch; there was a prolonged break in the afternoon, and the ball swung and seamed consistently — not excessively, but significantly more than at any stage in the series.

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It was the kind of day where an in-form attack, probing incessantly, could whistle out a team quickly, but no one summed up England’s difficulties more than Tongue. He bowled as waywardly as any England bowler has done in recent years, but also produced the odd diamond, taking two wickets, those of the left-handers Sai Sudharsan and Ravindra Jadeja, with unplayable balls from around the wicket.

Tongue took two wickets with peach deliveries but struggled with his line consistently ANDY KEARNS/GETTY IMAGES

Tongue has an unusual action, with his arms crossing over before the gather and his bowling arm coming from beyond the perpendicular. If things are not quite in sync, rhythm awry, then his line suffers. He bowled an extraordinary first over when his radar was all over the place, sending down two lots of five wides and a further wide, and he continued to be erratic, bowling a waist-high full toss 15 minutes before the close.

That the bowling was rusty in the absence of Brydon Carse, Stokes and Archer was unsurprising. It is not easy to dip in and out of a series on the back of little match practice. Tongue has played two days of a County Championship game after being left out for the third Test. Overton has played two first-class matches all summer, separated by a lengthy break for reasons such as the Indian Premier League and an injury sustained in the one-day series against West Indies.

Atkinson, also short of cricket, was impressive, though. It is easy to forget what a start he made to his international career last year and, after a hamstring injury that has restricted his appearances, he was back to the kind of form that took the eye last summer. He ran in urgently, bowled sharply and accurately, and deserved the two wickets that came his way.

Overton shows off his football skills but went wicketless as England failed to make the most of the conditions JAVIER GARCIA/SHUTTERSTOCK

If there were any excuses to be had, then early on the footholds were certainly damp at the Vauxhall End, causing Overton and Tongue to slip on landing. Another problem was a wet ball. When Overton slid at the boundary edge in the opening half-hour, he emerged needing to change his trousers, so wet were they. A tremendous cloudburst, which brought the morning session to an early close, did not help.

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While much of the comment on the condensed nature of the series has focused on the physical challenge for bowlers, mental weariness can easily creep in for batsmen, no matter how friendly the conditions. Five Tests in six weeks would affect those who find it hard to relax away from the game, or to sleep for example, as Steve Smith, the Australia batsman, has admitted to struggling to do.

Three of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s five Test hundreds have come in the first Test of a series. Having begun the summer with a hundred at Leeds and 87 at Edgbaston, his returns have declined and here he fell cheaply again, leg-before to Atkinson on review, which had Ollie Pope beaming like a toddler on Christmas morning given the stand-in captain’s struggles with DRS previously.

There was a hint of staleness, too, in the way KL Rahul chopped Woakes on to his stumps in the 16th over. Woakes was in the middle of a better second spell, having been switched to the Pavilion End, and Rahul aimed a cut to a ball that cramped him for room — a rare error from a batsman who has been pin-sharp with his decision-making around off stump all summer.

Gill has been in imperious form all series but got himself run out in careless fashion here GARETH COPLEY/GETTY IMAGES

The biggest mistake came from Gill, though, who once again shaped exquisitely. He picked off short balls either side of the wicket from Overton early on, and drove the sweetest of cover drives off the same bowler after lunch. Then, from nowhere, he called Sudharsan for a nonsensical single having pushed the ball from Atkinson into the off side, and was run out by the bowler following through with a direct hit.

It has not quite happened for Sudharsan in this series and once again, showing good composure, he battled hard before he got a beauty from Tongue, as did Jadeja. At 123 for five, England had designs on bowling India out at that point, but a composed half-century from Nair put paid to that, even though Dhruv Jurel became the sixth wicket to fall, when he edged Atkinson to slip. The injury to Woakes, which looked serious, brought the day to a sour end.

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