India register first Test win at Oval since 1971
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London, Sept 7: India won the fourth Test against England by 157 runs to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series after the home side collapsed to 210 all out on the final day at The Oval, London. With this win, India registered its first Test win at the Oval since 1971. If India continues this winning streak at Manchester Test starting Friday, it would win a series in England for just the fourth time after 1971, 1986, and 2007.
In yet another milestone due to this victory, India skipper Virat Kohl has become the Asian captain with the most number of wins (6) in SENA countries i.e. SENA comprises South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia. Over the course of his captaincy career, Kohli has recorded three Test wins in the UK, two in Australia and one in South Africa. Kohli is already the most successful Indian Test captain, having surpassed MS Dhoni in 2019.
India was looking confident enough the last day even though no wickets fell down till the 100-run partnrship came up for England. Thereafter, Indian bowlers delivered big time as the pacer Jasprit Bumrah with the assistance of Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and all-round performance by Shardul Thakur in the match helped visitors to win the fourth test.
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"Well, I think the best thing about both the games has been the character the team has shown. We are not looking to survive in this game, we are here to win. Really proud of the character the team has shown. It's quite relative to what you call flat. The conditions were hot and we knew were in with an opportunity when Jadeja was bowling in the rough. The bowlers were good with the reverse swing today. We believed we could get all 10 wickets, we had the belief," Kohli told Sky Sports during the post-match presentation.
"As soon as the ball started reversing, Bumrah said give me the ball. He bowled that spell and swung the game in our favour with those two huge wickets. I think you pointed his performance. Rohit's innings was fantastic. What Shardul has done in this game stands out. His two fifties deflated the opposition. I think he batted well in both innings. We never go towards analysis, statistics, and numbers," he added.
Due to Rohit Sharma's 127-knock, he was awarded the Man of the Match. He felt that Shardul was also a well-deserving playr to win that award. He said, "I thought Shardul's was a match-winning effort. To be honest, he deserved the Man of the Match as well for the performance he put. A crucial breakthrough for the team when England was 100 without loss, getting that crucial breakthrough was very important and then getting the wicket of Joe Root as well, he came in and got the wicket."
He did not forget to praise his batting skills, too. "How can we forget his batting, to come in and score 50 off just 31 balls in the first innings says a lot, he loves his batting and he has worked hard on it, I have seen him over the years. He wants to prove a point that he can bat and can give us momentum-changing innings as well. Yes, I got the Man of the Match, but I really feel he should have been part of that as well," he added.