England had moved to within 35 runs of securing a famous victory over India when bad light and torrential rain ended an extraordinary fourth day of the final Test at The Oval overnight.<\/p>\n
Harry Brook and Joe Root shared a superb fourth-wicket partnership of 195 to put England on the brink of completing a record run chase that would have given them a 3-1 series win.<\/p>\n
With India on the ropes and England needing just another 73 runs, Brook played a wild stroke and skied a catch to depart for 111.<\/p>\n
That gave India a glimmer of hope and they made the most of it.<\/p>\n
Jacob Bethell also fell to a rash shot for five and Root, having completed a masterful 39th Test century, nicked a catch to wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel off Prasidh Krishna to spark wild Indian celebrations.<\/p>\n
With tension mounting, Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton struggled to get bat on ball, surviving several frenzied appeals before the umpires decided it was too dark to continue.<\/p>\n
The players left the field and shortly afterwards a heavy rain shower made conditions unplayable, depriving the crowd of a tense finale to a day of unremitting drama.<\/p>\n
But a wonderful series \u2014 all five Tests have now gone into a fifth day \u2014 will receive a nerve-racking denouement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chris Woakes may be required to bat on the final day despite dislocating his shoulder. (Getty Images: Stu Forster)<\/p>\n
England will resume on 6-339 on Monday night (AEST), with bowler Chris Woakes unlikely to bat due to a dislocated shoulder, and India still in with a chance of a victory that would level a gripping five-match series.<\/p>\n
Woakes could be seen kitted up and with his arm in a sling, though, and could conceivably find himself at the crease on day five, though presumably only at the non-striker’s end.<\/p>\n
India had the better of the morning session after England resumed on 1-50, dismissing Ben Duckett for 54 and Ollie Pope for 27 to leave the hosts wobbling on 3-106.<\/p>\n
Brook, on 19, was lucky to survive when Mohammed Siraj caught him in the deep before stepping back on to the boundary cushion.<\/p>\n
The prolific right-hander made him pay a heavy price for the error, striking two sixes and 12 fours all around the ground to reach his 10th Test century off 91 balls.<\/p>\n
Root provided the perfect foil, continuing his consistent form throughout the series, as the Indian bowlers struggled to get much movement under grey skies.<\/p>\n
Once past three figures, Brook launched an all-out attack, hitting Akash Deep for two fours in an over before attempting a third and Siraj completed the catch on this occasion.<\/p>\n
Brook’s bat flew out of his hands as he played the stroke and he had to retrieve it before returning to the pavilion to a standing ovation from the crowd.<\/p>\n
He probably believed he had done enough to ensure victory for his team but India had other ideas.<\/p>\n
The highest successful run chase at The Oval was England’s 9-263 against Australia in 1902.<\/p>\n
AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England had moved to within 35 runs of securing a famous victory over India when bad light and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,22527,36396,17066,2132,85,1211],"class_list":["post-41288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-england-vs-india","tag-harry-brook","tag-joe-root","tag-mohammed-siraj","tag-sports","tag-test-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}