The Oval Test could have finished on Day 4 itself.
The fifth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between England and India at The Oval may have gone to the final day, but there was a real chance of the game finishing on Day 4 if not for bad light and rain forcing early stumps.
The series-decider is evenly poised heading into the fifth day’s play. Chasing 374, the hosts require 35 more runs while the visitors need four wickets.
Harry Brook and Joe Root slammed centuries for England, but with both batters being dismissed, India had the edge. Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton are currently at the crease, and while the duo will try its best to help England register a 3-1 series victory, the Indian bowlers will be keen to end the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy at 2-2.
However, the on-field umpires Ahsan Raza and Kumar Dharmasena along with the Oval groundsmen are coming under fire for not getting on with the game and resuming play on Day 4 itself.
The downpour started once the umpires took the players off for bad light. However, the rain soon disappeared, and there was sunlight. As per the rule book, the play had to resume by 11:12 PM IST. However, umpires called stumps before 11 PM.
Speaking on Sky Sports, former England skipper Nasser Hussain said that there could have been more common sense on the part of the match officials as the Test match deserved a grand finish in front of a jam-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," Hussain stated.
"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.
Hussain further suggested that the umpires could have asked the two teams if they wanted to finish the game on Day 4 itself.
"We're willing to push that back half an hour, are you okay, both teams, are you okay to do that, if one of the teams, if India could say, our bowlers are exhausted, give them a night's sleep, then you say, absolutely fine, or England say, we've had a mad hour there, we want to come back tomorrow, that's fine, but I'm just wondering if you could have a bit of common sense in there, but it's a shame," he said.
Former India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik endorsed Hussain's views, saying the series deserved a finish in front of a sold-out Oval on Day 4.
"On a day like this, especially with a Test series of this magnitude, it would be nice to have 20,000 people at the ground cheering, whichever team won, I mean, it was either going to go England 3-1, which is what it looked like for a majority of the day, and then suddenly after tea, India's come back and they have some renewed excellence with the ball," said Karthik.
"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," he further remarked.