IND vs ENG, 5th Test Match, Day 5: Can England Rewrite Oval History?
With 324 runs to chase and eight wickets in hand, Karan Pradhan lays out what Pope’s men must do to pull off a record-breaking win, and what India’s pacers need to seal a 2–2 series finish.
Last Updated: 12.31 PM, Aug 03, 2025
Published on the cusp of play, #PreMatchMemo sets the scene before each Test — spotlighting arcs, angles, and all that’s in play before the first ball is bowled.
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FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIS Oval Test, one team found itself well and truly on top. After an inspired batting performance by one opener and the lower middle order put India ahead by 373 runs, the very late wicket of Zak Crawley left England with a very clear equation: Make 324 runs without losing the eight remaining wickets (reminder that Chris Woakes is out with a shoulder injury), or bat out six sessions and clinch a draw.
The third day began with Yashasvi Jaiswal and nightwatcher Akash Deep picking up where they left off on Friday evening, with India on 75/2. The duo would go on to compile a match-influencing (if not quite matchwinning) partnership of 107 runs for the third wicket to wrest the advantage from England. And while Shubman Gill and Karun Nair failed to put too many on the board, valuable contributions from Ravindra Jadeja and Dhruv Jurel, and a swashbuckling 50 at the end from Washington Sundar took India to a third innings total of 396.
When the hosts reflect on just how they let the visitors rack up such a monumental score, they would do well to look back at their own lavish generosity. England dropped a grand total of six catches in the Indian innings, including Jaiswal thrice and Akash Deep quite early on. It’s hard to imagine India getting particularly close to 396 if those catches had stuck in the palms of the English fielders. Credit where it’s due though, Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue and Jamie Overton bowled tirelessly in the absence of Woakes, and can rightly consider themselves unlucky.
Ben Duckett and Crawley began the fourth innings with an eye on seeing out the day’s play. With two full days ahead, there was never any rush for the batters to achieve their target at a breakneck speed, and they began constructing their respective innings relatively calmly. Loose balls were hammered to the fence and good ones were played watchfully. And for over an hour, everything seemed to be going according to plan. Until, that is, Mohammed Siraj made the most of a ball that kept low to push back a crestfallen Crawley’s off stump.
THE DAY AHEAD
After 43 days of hard-fought Test cricket, we’ve — in all likelihood — arrived at the final day of the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The series looks more likely to end in a 2-2 than a 3-1, with the hosts still a fair distance away from their target. But, if there’s one thing this set of matches has taught us, it’s that most of the time, anything’s possible. We’ve seen India lay waste to its own track record at Edgbaston with a thumping 336-run win, we’ve seen England snatch the narrowest of victories in the Lord’s Test, and we’ve seen some of the strangest dust-ups between the two sets of players. Akash Deep putting an arm around Duckett, anyone?
Like most Test match days, it all begins with the first hour. Duckett and Ollie Pope will have watched the way Jaiswal and Akash Deep dug in during the first hour on Saturday, and then reaped the rewards. And they’ll be keen to do a bit of the same. India, for its part, has Siraj, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna, who’ve found a good rhythm in this match. Plus, the 14-over-old ball is still moving around and there is some inconsistent bounce in the pitch. As a result, the mantra for the hosts will be ‘patience’.
It’s worth noting that not a single wicket of the 30 to fall in this match thus far, has been claimed by a spinner. The key for the visitors is likely to be Siraj and if the hosts can keep him at bay, their chances of winning increase manifold. Blunting the Indian bowling attack’s spearhead and tiring out another quick in the process will force Gill’s hand and he’ll have to bring on a spinner. This is where England can notch up some runs. Stand-in skipper Pope will also take heart from the fact that his team bats deep. Atkinson has a Test match century to his name and Overton has a high score of 97. And so even a couple of cheap wickets won’t necessarily condemn England to failure.
Apart from Siraj and Co, the biggest obstacle standing in the home team’s way is history. The highest run chase at this ground took place in 1902 when England scored 263 to beat Australia. The second-highest occurred in 1963 when the Windies defeated England by scoring 252 in the fourth innings. It goes without saying that no team has come close to scoring 374 to win a match at The Oval. But then, this series has had a knack of bucking trends, breaking records and defying conventions. At the end of the day, the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy will remain in England’s possession, but it’s the manner (2-2 or 3-1) in which it is retained that Sunday will be all about.
Karan Pradhan is editor-in-chief of Story Mode, a gaming and gaming-adjacent magazine. Follow him on X/Twitter @karanpradhan_