England and India are clashing in the fifth and final Test of the ongoing series that began on July 31, 2025, at the Oval in London. England is 2-1 up in the series, while India needs to win this series to earn a draw in the five-match series.

Meanwhile, both the teams made huge changes to their playing XIs. England had announced that Ben Stokes was injured, while Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse were rested, and Liam Dawson was dropped. In came Josh Tongue, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, and Jamie Overton.

For India, Dhruv Jurel replaced injured Rishabh Pant; Karun Nair, Prasidh Krishna, and Akash Deep were included in the India XI.

India’s rotten luck with the toss continued as Shubman Gill lost the toss and was asked to bat first in overcast conditions at the Oval. Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul opened the innings for India, and Jaiswal was dismissed for 2 runs, LBW to Atkinson.

Sai Sudharsan, fresh off his hard-fought fifty in the Manchester Test, joined KL Rahul, and the two began stabilizing the innings. However, something interesting was pointed out by the eagle-eyed fans in the 13th over bowled by Josh Tongue.

Young Indian batsman Sai Sudharsan was hit by a vicious inswinging low full delivery from England pacer Josh Tongue. The ball struck Sudharsan's pads with such force and speed that he was knocked off his feet and fell to the ground.

LBW was loudly demanded by England right away. However, Kumar Dharmasena abruptly rejected the appeal and made it obvious that the ball had taken an inside edge. Although replays revealed a slight contact off the bat, the umpire's quick and assured call—almost as if he didn't want England to waste a review—was startling.

However, it was noticed that while umpire Kumar Dharmasena didn’t give Sudharsan out on Tongue’s appeal, as England was pondering over the review, the Sri Lankan was seen signaling to the hosts that the ball had taken the inside edge.  

Following the incident, Indian cricket fans accused Dharmasena of favoring the England cricket team, which they described as "blatant cheating." If Dharmasena hadn't acted so fast, England might have reviewed the ruling, only to lose out on what was essentially an inside edge.

Here are the posts: