Jos Buttler top scored with 89 as he and Stuart Broad combined to add 98 for the 9th wicket and take England to a commanding total of 332 in the 1st innings of the final Test. 

Jos Buttler swings Bumrah into the stands during his innings today source

For India, the day's play must have seemed like a case of deja vu as they once again let England's lower middle order rescue them from a tricky position. When it came to be their turn to bat India showed decent resolve to reach 70-1 and 101-2. However, it was the final session of the day, much of which was played under floodlights, that once again provided the most wickets. During that period England dismissed Pujara, Rahane, Pant and claimed the prize wicket of captain Virat Kohli who had made 49 before edging Ben Stokes to Joe Root at 2nd slip. With India still trailing by 158 runs and having just 4 wickets in hand England will hope to take a significant lead into the 2nd half of the match. 

Analysis of the day's play 


Buttler's Brilliance 

Alongside the emergence of Sam Curran, the form of the recalled Jos Buttler must provide England's selectors and fans with the most satisfaction. His addition to the squad following a brilliant spell in the IPL early in the year took many by surprise. The fact as well that England are playing a specialist batsman at number 7 alongside Bairstow as a keeper batsman also made the addition of Buttler look slightly odd. However, he has proved to be England's most successful and most consistent batsman this summer, top scoring in 5 out of their 11 innings so far.  

Buttler was able to build on the hard work that he had done yesterday evening in resisting India's seamers. He mixed placement with extreme power, including one massive 6 off the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah that went about 20 rows back into the stand. Today also marked Buttler's 28th birthday and his maturity in years plus the experience of 25 Test matches has finally allowed him to hone the immense amount of natural talent he has into a true Test match batsmen who can adapt his game to any situation. 

Kohli's Captaincy Fails Again 

The beauty of having proper 5 Test series played by 2 evenly matched sides in challenging conditions is that it emphasises a player's weaknesses. In the case of Kohli's captaincy we have again seen that he is happy to let games drift and wait for things to happen rather than go out and grab the situation by the scruff of the neck. Arguably that has already cost India 2 matches this series and it could well now be 3 as they threw away a strong overnight position.

Kohli seems short of ideas at times source 

Right from the very first over today, Kohli was on the defensive against Buttler. Rather than trying to get him out, Kohli seemed happy to just contain him and offer first Rashid and then later Broad the strike. With the ball having swung and seamed all day yesterday and England having had to scrap hard for just 198 runs you would have thought that Kohli would be fairly confident in his bowlers finishing the job pretty quickly. Instead from ball 1  he had his field spread, taking the pressure off the England batsmen and allowing them to play their natural game. Even against Stuart Broad there seemed very little urgency to get his bowlers to give him some chin music. The 98 runs that Buttler and Broad added for the 9th wicket may end up being the kind of lead that England take into their 2nd innings.........

Jimmy Finally Loses His Rag 

Poor Jimmy Anderson just cannot get the wicket of Virat Kohli in this series. He has bowled consistently at the number 1 batsman in the world but Kohli has played him as well as anyone ever has in home conditions. Even when he has gotten a knick to slip it's been put down and with time in the series running out, England's all time leading wicket taker was desperate to get the break through he feels he deserves. Anderson thought he had his man this afternoon when he got a ball to nip back into Kohli and strike him adjacent to the wicket. Anderson went up, the England fielders went up, the home supporters went up but umpire Dharmasena's finger remained decidedly down. Joe Root decided to review the decision with Hawkeye showing that the impact of the ball was 'umpire's call' and Kohli was allowed to continue. However, Jimmy Anderson who is not known for having a particularly long fuse, decided to vent spleen at the umpire and Virat Kohli over the call and could now be fined up to 15% of his match fee for a decent. The series has in general been played in pretty good spirits with no major incidents. I wasn't a fan of the whole mic-drop from Root and the celebration that followed after Kohli ran him out in the first game,  such actions appeared immature and unnecessary. 

Kohli and Anderson had a heated exchange at the Oval today source

I'm sure Jimmy will feel a lot better if he can claim the 3 more wickets that he needs to go past Glen McGrath as the leading seam bowler in the history of the game. Who knows perhaps it'll be his old friend Virat who he picks up in the 2nd innings, that would be a celebration worth watching!

Vihari's Baptism of Fire 

I wrote about the astonishing first class record of India's debutant Hanuma Vihari in my preview of this game. However, I very much doubt that his average of almost 60 was made in conditions like he faced today. Batting at 6, Vihari came to crease after the quick wickets of Pujara and Rahane, under cloudy skies and floodlights with Anderson and Broad swinging the balls around corners. It was pretty obvious that England had a plan against the young man that involved bowling full and wide in order to drag him to the off-side of his crease before firing in the inswinger to try and get his head falling over and making him an LBW candidate. It would have worked too had the on-field umpire given him out LBW or had England chosen to use their a review to a Stuart Broad delivery that would have hit the stumps. A couple of overs later Vihari was given out on field, again falling over a ball that moved back in, only this time he was reprieved by the 3rd umpire.

Vihari is falling a long way across to the off-side meaning that he is likely to miss a ball the comes back in. Unfortunately England also missed the opportunity to send him on his way source

Vihari also survived some short pitched bowling late on from Stokes that resulted in a top edged 6 and a spooned shot that landed just short of Rashid coming in from fine leg. Still the youngest can hold his head high and be happy that he is still there tomorrow. Can he play the type of rearguard innings that England's middle order has done so consistently this summer? 

Video Highlights

For those who missed them please see below match highlights 

Can India battle on and try and get something from this game or are they already packed, ready for the long flight home and just waiting to go down 4-1?

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