The heavyweight showdown for the World Test Championship title seems destined to go the distance with India defying logic and precedent to mount a fearless assault on a mountainous target with the familiar, unbowed figures of Virat Kohli (44no) and Ajinkya Rahane (20no) leading the charge.
By stumps, India had reduced their unprecedented run chase to 280 with belief they can complete their most famous win since they toppled Australia at home – when Rahane inherited the captaincy from Kohli – alive and loud on the terraces at The Oval, if not the game’s voluminous statistical records.
After the loss of two key wickets in rapid succession in the final session, the veteran pair’s fourth-wicket union that has already brought 71 runs from 116 balls will likely hold the key to the outcome of an already absorbing WTC Final.
India began their pursuit of 444 (from a minimum 136 overs) under blazing sun at 2.27pm, knowing they faced a grim challenge to avoid defeat and needed to rewrite history if they were to steal a win.
The highest fourth innings total ever posted at The Oval to date is 429 in 1979 when, perhaps portentously, India undertook an audacious chase of 438 to defeat England and were eight wickets down when time ran out and an honourable draw recorded.
Australia’s seemingly unassailable advantage was forged thanks to an unbeaten 66 from wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who fashioned a 93-run stand with Mitchell Starc for the seventh wicket that lifted their team to 8-270 when the declaration came midway through day four.
But that was about the last time Australia got to call the shots for the remainder of the afternoon.
Whether it was the effect of the 28C heat that built from early in the day, the heavy roller that compacted the widening cracks at change of innings, or Australia’s ineffectiveness with the new ball – or most realistically, a combination of the above – but batting suddenly seemed a doddle.
The erratic bounce and regular body blows that had characterised the first three bowling innings dominated by the quicks dissipated into the balmy afternoon hour, as India’s openers slipped quickly into white-ball mode.
As he had done in the first innings, Rohit Sharma set the tone by whipping the second ball he faced to the fence at backward square leg, and then his partner Shubman Gill joined the feast as India rollicked along at almost five runs an over.
Not unreasonably expecting the new ball to fly from a length as had happened on prior days, Australia’s bowlers instead watched impotent as the right-handers stood tall and punched back-of-length deliveries through point or clipped effortlessly off their legs.
The scoring rate was aided by the expanse of more than 50 pitches that span one square boundary to the other at The Oval, which meant any stroke not aimed at a fielder would streak to the rope.
The only respite for Australia came when, after six overs, they called for a replacement ball which represented the second occasion during the day the Dukes-brand had been knocked out of shape within half an hour of being deployed.
The replacement version was then at risk of being lost when Rohit lifted a short offering from Starc into the crowd at fine leg, and everything was flowing India’s way … until it suddenly wasn’t.
The circuit-breaker came at the start of the eighth over, by which time the score had reached 0-41, when Gill pushed hard at a rising delivery from Scott Boland and Cameron Green snatched a remarkable catch low to his left at gully.
Gill defiantly stood his ground with he and his skipper of the view Green had scooped it up on the bounce and, in the new post-soft signal era, adjudication was left to third umpire Richard Kettleborough who scrutinised the evidence for minutes before ruling it a fair catch.
Gill was incensed, Rohit volubly shouted ‘no’ when the verdict was flashed on video screens and India’s pathologically parochial fans began screaming ‘cheat, cheat’ despite the game’s laws clearly outlining how the decision was reached.
Rohit then took out his frustrations on Australia’s wayward attack, notably Starc whose first six overs brought 0-37, until Pat Cummins played his trump card.
It had taken almost 20 overs for Nathan Lyon to be thrown the ball, but it took him less than one to dismiss Rohit whose ambitious sweep shot saw him trapped in front and so clearly lbw that not even his resigned call for a review by the third umpire he had earlier admonished could save him.
Less than an over later, Cummins completed the double-strike when Cheteshwar Pujara looked to lift a short ball over the slips, only to find it jag back at him with the resultant bottom edge pouched neatly by Carey.
Amid the shock of seeing two set batters unseated in consecutive overs, India fans were delirious at the arrival of Kohli and buoyed by the re-appearance of first innings top-scorer Rahane who had not taken the field during his team’s bowling effort today having suffered a finger injury while batting on Friday.
Kohli looked in ominously good touch after copping a brute of a ball from Starc in the first innings, and middle every delivery he aimed his bat at in his initial 25 minutes at the crease before Boland twice forced a play and miss from successive balls.
But the ‘King’ was soon back on his throne with a series of clinical drives and sweetly timed flicks of the wrist as, not for the first time, he single-handedly took it upon himself to carry his team across a distant finish line.
As has been the hallmark of this most gripping and worthy Test supremacy decider, every time one team seems to have wrested a measure of control over proceedings the other comes clawing back.
And while India have been doing their scraping from second place for all but the first session of this game, their refusal to submit was on show again from this morning’s opening over.
Umesh Yadav delivers for his country #WTCFinal pic.twitter.com/lOvau3gOgc
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) June 10, 2023
That was when Umesh Yadav, perhaps the least impressive of their four-pronged pace attack to that point, provided a graphic illustration of why any fourth innings pursuit beyond the nominal was likely to be a challenge.
From the second ball he faced, having resumed on 41 from three hours of batting on Friday evening, Marnus Labuschagne copped a stinging blow to his right upper thigh administered by Umesh who jagged a fast off-break past the batter’s inside edge.
In his next over, Umesh landed another bruise on a similar spot albeit with a delivery that also bounced appreciably but veered the other way to elude the outside of Labuschagne’s bat.
And with his next effort, he landed the knockout punch by pitching marginally fuller while Labuschagne – understandably expecting it to once more rear from a length – fended with feet planted and edged a chest-high catch to slip.
At that point, India had ripped open their rivals’ middle-order by snaring 3-38 either side of stumps, and another couple of quick wickets before the beating sun baked the pitch opened up the genuine prospect of chasing less than 350 for victory across at least five sessions.
But from the first ball he faced, and deftly glided past gully for the day’s first boundary, Carey served notice Australia were far from cowed as their lead pushed past 300.
The value of every run was laid bare when Green set off for a kamikaze single having knocked India seamer Shardul Thakur firmly to mid-on and would surely have been run out had fielder Mohammed Siraj not fumbled as he closed in on the non-striker’s stumps.
Siraj then left the field amid concerns India’s most threatening bowler might be hampered by injury.
But he returned soon after and, in concert with the ever-dangerous left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja, launched what felt like India’s concerted push to knock over Australia’s bottom half and ensure their victory target remained ‘optimistic’ rather than ‘unrealistic’.
Siraj served notice of the menace he posed soon after the day’s first drinks break when he slammed a snorter on Green’s right shoulder, forcing the towering allrounder to drop his bat and walk ruefully towards square leg before undergoing assessment from team medical staff.
While this sub-plot was playing out, Siraj stood and glared from close range and the intimidatory tactics brought the desired outcome, even if it arrived in highly unusual circumstances.
It was Jadeja who made the breakthrough, with Green seemingly intent on seeing off the imminent threat by thrusting his pad at the orthodox spin being fired into the rough outside the right-hander’s leg stump.
The Australian’s first attempt at nullification brought a vehement if unsuccessful lbw shout; the second yielded his wicket as the ball evaded the front leg thrust forward in defiance and instead brushed his right glove before bouncing directly into off-stump.
But that was India’s final moment of joy for the session, as Carey and Mitchell Starc saw off the seam-spin threat and began to make batting appear comparatively straightforward on a pitch that had previously been anything but.
Oops #WTC23 pic.twitter.com/nOgtWowtcD
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) June 10, 2023
By lunch, the pair’s partnership had produced an invaluable 34 from 42 balls as the lead stretched to 374 and India’s final chance looked to have eluded them upon resumption.
That was when Carey (on 41) edged Umesh’s first delivery of the session at knee height into the slips where both Pujara and Kohli watched it sail unimpeded between them on its way to the boundary rope.
It was a signal that India’s dogged resistance might finally be waning, and emboldened the two left-handers to up the ante as their lead crested 400.
When Starc teed off and muscled the second new-ball over mid-wicket for four, India officially needed to post the highest fourth-innings total in a Test at The Oval across 142 years – in wins, losses and draws – to steal the WTC crown from Australia.
And on the weekend that sun-bathed London draped itself in pageantry for the annual Trooping of the Colour, it was going to take a king-sized act of individual brilliance for that to happen.
World Test Championship Final
June 7-11:Â Australia v India, The Oval
Australia squad:Â Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner
India squad:Â Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat
Find out everything you need to know for the World Test Championship Final here
