India’s poor run in England continued as England took a lead of 237 runs at the end of day 2 in the fifth and the final test match at The KIA Oval in Yorkshire. Joe Root had played yet another stellar innings which enabled England to take such a huge lead after England had lost 4 wickets in a short span before the tea-break.
England began the day on 62/0 trailing India’s 148 by 86 runs with 10 wickets in hand. Varun Aaron did not take much time this morning to take the wicket of Sam Robson as he was undone by a full length delivery. But 
Cook was dropped twice before he partnered Gary Ballance to take England past India’s total. But once Cook (79) went out, suddenly Indian bowlers looked all the more dangerous. And it was during this phase that England lost the wickets of Gary Ballance (64), Ian Bell (7), and Moeen Ali (14) in quick succession. At stumps England are on 385/7.
Indian bowlers did bowl their heart out but the Indian fielders made their job harder by dropping catches. Murali Vijay dropped a sitter from Alistair Cook although he took a harder one later one. Still India managed to put win one session in this test match as they picked up 4 wickets in the second session of the day. At the end of the day Ashwin, Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron all have 2 wickets beside their name. Bhuvaneshwar picked the last wicket of the day when Chris Woakes edged off his pads to Dhoni.
Jos Buttler (45) and Joe Root (92*) however managed to weather the storm and took England further ahead towards winning this match. Currently England is leading India by 237 runs with 3 wickets remaining in hand. As it stands now, India will face a daunting task of taking the match into the fifth day (taking into account India’s batting in the last few innings). That will surely be yet another humiliating defeat for the Indians. But for the Indian cricket fans this has been a familiar picture for the last few years since the big names had retired.
Tags: India vs England Oval test Joe Root
