The Oval Renaissance

Bumrah Leads Stirring Bowling Show As India Post First Test Win At Iconic Ground In 50 Years

- Partha Bhaduri

This time it wasn’t the elephant which came to the Oval, as it had in 1971.

Instead it was a snarling, growling wolf pack of an Indian seam-bowling unit, fearsome and imposing in its presence, unrelenting in its ferocity, savage in its bite and capable of sniffing out the last whiff of panic in the opposition ranks.

Half a century between victories at this iconic ground has been time enough for a complete metamorphosis in the way India approach their cricket. Now the Oval will, following India’s enthralling 157run win in the fourth Test on Monday, stand forever testimony to this tectonic shift under Virat Kohli.

By the time the slowish but effective Shardul Thakur, the most unlikely addition to this pace pack, got Joe Root to drag one back onto the stumps with the old ball, it was already game over for England, who eventually fell for 210 chasing 368. It would be a matter of a few more overs before the last vestiges of resistance would be snuffed out from the hosts.

There was no Shami. No Ishant. But the sensational Jasprit Bumrah (2/27 off 22 blistering overs), the chief whip of this attack, was a one-man army on the last day, a conductor in complete control of his formidable abilities.

Now the fastest Indian pacer to 100 Test wickets (24 Tests), Bumrah showed just why he is lethal in the fourth innings by breaking England’s back in a six-over reverse-swinging burst after lunch.

He was aided and abetted by Ravindra Jadeja (2/50) spearing it into the rough from the other end and getting the wickets of Moeen Ali and Haseeb Hameed. Bumrah, whose second spell read 6-3-6-2 and the wickets of Pope and Bairstow, was something else entirely: an engine of destruction on a flat and docile surface.