5th Test: Rain forces early lunch at The Oval after India reach 72/2 against England

London: Sudden rain forced an early lunch to be taken on day one of the fifth Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test at The Oval. At the time of interruption, India was at 72/2 after 23 overs, where B Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill were unbeaten on 25 and 15 respectively.

Electing to bowl first on the grassiest pitch of the ongoing five-match series, England removed India openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, but Sudharsan has looked solid and weathered past challenges to be unbeaten on 25 off 67 balls.

Gill, meanwhile, has been positive in his 15 not out so far and went past Sunil Gavaskar’s 732 runs against the West Indies in 1978/79 to grab the new record for most runs by an Indian captain in a Test series. Once the heavy downpour goes off, both Sudharsan and Gill will be required to dig in again under tough batting conditions.

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For England, Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson took a scalp each, but the hosts would feel they could have bowled a bit tighter, especially with Josh Tongue and Jamie Overton being all over the place. At times, England had issues with the landing area, which was moist due to the rainy weather in London.

Atkinson made the early breakthrough when he got a fuller wobble seam ball to nip in a touch and trap Yashasvi Jaiswal lbw, with Pope’s hesitant review leading to the on-field call being overturned in their favour. 

Rahul and Sudharsan had a little partnership of 28 runs, where they judged line and length well. But the build-up of pressure made by a couple of quiet overs after drinks break forced Rahul to go for a cut off Woakes, but the ball being too close to him meant he chopped on to his stumps for 14.

Sudharsan began to open up by driving Tongue down the ground for four, before Gill rocked back to punch Overton for another boundary. While Gill punished short and wide balls from Overton for boundaries, Sudharsan wowed everyone by nailing a perfect straight drive off Woakes, before an unexpected heavy downpour forced everyone to go off the field.

Brief scores: India 72/2 in 23 overs (B Sai Sudharsan 25 not out, Shubman Gill 15 not out; Gus Atkinson 1-7, Chris Woakes 1-28) against England.