The fifth and final Test between India and England is poised for a dramatic conclusion. The hosts staged a remarkable fightback, building key partnerships to shift the momentum after India appeared to have control on Day 4, with England still requiring 324 runs and just one wicket down. Due to rain and poor lighting, stumps were called early due to rain and poor light, leaving England 35 runs away from victory with three wickets remaining.
Rain began falling in the final session, causing the umpires to pull the players off the field. At 10:33 PM (IST), the stumps were pulled, and the match was moved to the fifth day.
Due to this, commentators Nasser Hussain and Dinesh Karthik slammed the match officials for forcing an early stumping, since the game deserved to end in front of a packed crowd.
“Most importantly for viewers and fans who paid good money, remember Monday is a workday, and this sort of series deserves a finale in front of a big crowd at an iconic cricket ground, the Oval. That would have been some finale on Sunday, you may have just knocked off 35, or you may have seen Chris Woakes walk downstairs in a sling. I’m just wondering if they could have done anything, they had like 42-43 minutes to play with and within the laws and the playing regulations,” said Hussain on Sky Sports.
“If the groundsman had said no, we can’t get the covers off in that time, the umpires would have to call stumps. I’m just wondering, you do have the option of the extra half hour, don’t you? If you feel you can get result at 7.30, if there was 10 to win, the umpires would have given the team the extra half hour, I was just wondering if you could give the extra half hour at 6:42 (11:12 PM IST) and say to the teams, it has to come from the teams,” he added.
Dinesh Karthik also agreed with Nasser’s statement and said that the officials could have used some “common sense” before making the decision.
“Little bit of rain, and I agree the rules are the rules, but I kind of like what Nasser said, that half an hour extension that you get meant, even if it meant it needed to start at 6.45, it could well have been 11, 12 hours, it could have gone either way, the crowd would have gotten to see the result, and it’s a nice feeling to know that both teams have gone so hard, you give them the option, they don’t want to use it, fair enough, everybody’s going to come back tomorrow for whatever it’s worth, but today, I think a little bit more common sense would have been to ask, I’m not saying it should happen, to ask I think is the fair thing to do,” said Karthik.
