Sports

The agony, the ecstasy: 56 minutes of Test cricket at its most glorious

Published

6 months ago

2025/08/5

Priyan

The Indian team celebrates their Oval win [Cricinfo]

56 minutes of hell. 56 minutes of heaven. 56 minutes of the wildest ride of your goddamn life. 56 minutes that will change you forever.

It is enough time to move from the northern-most part of the Victoria Line to its lower reaches, brush shoulders as you walk up the escalator of Vauxhall Station and turn into the Harleyford Road to see the Kia Oval on the horizon.

Enough time to believe in new heroes. Enough time to laud old ones. Enough time to have your heart broken. Enough time to count yourself lucky that Test cricket, handed down by older generations more than it is ever picked up by newer ones, was handed to you. Enough time to find yourself a whole new world.

Enough time, on this rare occasion, to pick it up as a new convert. Because there would have been some in this pocket of south London who will have experienced Test cricket for the first time on Monday. Firstly, welcome. Usually, it lasts longer than this. And no, you will never see abything like this again.

The very existence of List A and T20 cricket – and yes, the Hundred, which begins on Tuesday – comes from the idea that the longest format is too long, too convoluted, too inconvenient to really grab you. Who knew all it takes was a small taste of the hard stuff to grab you by the throat and stir your soul.

This was 100% proof, undiluted, unhinged Test cricket. All you needed was a shot of 56 minutes. No human body, not even those reared on it, including those out there providing the action, could have dealt with much more.

Day five at the Kia Oval was sold out well before this match threatened to spill over from Sunday’s longer-form chaos. The gripping finale of the third Test, on the other side of the river at Lord’s, had resulted in Surrey selling over 5000 day five tickets in 24 hours. Eventually, 17,545 punters had what, unbeknownst to them, would prove to be the most golden of tickets.

At only £25 a pop for adults (20 for members) and £1 for kids, it was a sound investment given that refunds would be given if the day saw no play. Rarely has just 8.5 overs felt like a steal.

Such pricing usually brings a different kind of crowd to the first four days – especially at Lord’s – but, down at The Oval, the mix of English and Indian fans was as it had been throughout the match already. The state of the game, however, created a more feverish atmosphere, making this bowl ground feel taller and deeper, and even more self-contained. For 56 minutes, there was no outside world, for the outside world was every bit as transfixed with what was going on in here. Even the construction on the new apartment blocks in the old Gasholders ground to a halt.

The clamour as the players entered the field was louder than it had been all match. The English roars when Jamie Overton pulled the first ball for four were more guttural. The Indian jubilation when victory was sealed in Mohammed Siraj’s 186th over of the series came crashing back and forth like Atlantic-sized waves in a goldfish bowl.

The overnight break helped add to the tumult, even amid the fury of Sunday’s hastily called stumps, though an extra night’s sleep brought anything but. A new day’s new opportunity was now riddled with even more jeopardy.

How on earth did 35 more runs turn into the impossible job when 301 of the 374 had been cleared with such ease? Since when has getting through a tail that includes a man with only one functioning arm come replete with truly eternal legacy-making rewards and, thus, incomprehensible pressure?

There were simpler questions, too. Who wanted it? And the one we were all asking ourselves – who could bear it?

A familiar trope of Test cricket is that, at its best, it is a universal force. Happening to people, beyond their control and comprehension.

But that does a disservice to the protagonists. To Joe Root and Harry Brook, who dragged this fourth innings into legendary territory. And, finally, Siraj, who had bowled on 18 of the 25 days of these five Tests, sending down 50 or more balls on 12 of them. And his 1122nd delivery (including extra balls), sent down with as much vigour as the previous 1121, was his fifth-fastest of them all at 89mph/143kph. And the one that will live forever.

Moments like these always give you heroes. But they also give you kindred spirits. Those you are drawn to as much for their heroics as their fallibility.

Akash Deep, face down in the green beyond the boundary at midwicket, palms still stinging from Gus Atkinson’s heave to cow, wondering if he’d be to blame for an impending loss. Dhruv Jurel wanting that same turf to swallow him as Siraj and Shubman Gill berated him for missing the stumps with an underarm that would have sealed the match. His shot at immortality scuttled a yard past the striker’s stumps.

Atkinson crestfallen, one hit away from a tie that would have given England the series win, doubled over, smelling the earth where his off stump used to be. A lionhearted Chriis Woakes, dislocated left shoulder strapped to his torso, secured by a sleeveless jumper, arm guard on his “wrong” side with a view to batting southpaw.

Even umpire Ahsan Raza, assuming the role of good Samaritan, helping the infirm Woakes readjust himself after sprinting the bye Jurel failed to prevent, a moment that left his left arm loose despite all the binding.

And hey, let’s hear it for the Dukes ball. Pilloried for the last seven weeks but thriving in its final 85.1 overs of the English Test summer.

Was 2-2 a fair result? On balance, yes. But England’s failure to punch their card for a hat-trick of 370-plus chases against India should be regarded as a misstep from 301 for 3 and 332 for 4.

That only enhances India’s feat in squaring the series, even if they will depart a long tour with issues of their own. Selection decisions remain inconsistent, and their batting needs to take cues from their bowling when it comes to getting a grip of sessions that are turning against them.

With the best will in the world, who cares about any of that right now? As both sets of players reflected on how such a hard-fought series could reach such a climax, they would do well to appreciate how lucky they were, too.

Test cricket has been going on for almost 150 years, and we were still treated to a one-of-a-kind finish. And perhaps more importantly, at a time when other Test-playing nations are unwelcome and unable to participate in series that allow such fairytales, both sides should count themselves lucky. Lucky to play regularly in a format that can lift you to higher plains. Lucky to afford to do it.

As it happens, Monday was the 20-year anniversary of the start of the 2005 Edabaston Test between England and Australia. A Test that, ultimately, defines an Ashes series regarded as the greatest ever.

That two-run victory was England’s slimmest margin. Here in 2025, India bagged theirs, by six. Maybe the universe is up to something.

Many have wondered throughout these five Tests if the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy could rival 2005’s offerings. In these 56 minutes, it did.

[Cricinfo]

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Sri Lanka women to tour West Indies for ODI and T20I series in February-March 2026

Published

6 hours ago

2026/01/27

Priyan

Sri Lanka will be looking to win their first T20I series since their Asia Cup triumph of 2024

Sri Lanka women will tour the West Indiesfor a multi-format white-ball series in February-March. The tour will consist of three ODIs and three T20Is between February 20 to March 3.

All six games of the tour will be played at Grenada National Stadium. The first ODI will be on February 20, followed by games on February 22 and 25. The T20I series then starts on February 28, followed by games on March 1 and 3.

The T20I series, in particular, will be crucial as both teams look to build their prep towards the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup in the UK this summer. Both West Indies and Sri Lanka are in Group 2 of the competition alongside hosts England, New Zealand and two qualifiers not yet determined.

Sri Lanka will be looking to win their first T20I series since their Asia Cup triumph of 2024. West Indies have won their last two T20I series at home against Bangladesh and South Africa.

Sri Lanka last toured the Caribbean for an ODI and T20I series in 2024. That tour saw the visitors win the ODIs 3-0 and the hosts claim the T20Is 2-1.

[Cricinfo]

Latest News

Scotland bank on ICC assurances over Sharif visa after naming T20 World Cup squad

Published

7 hours ago

2026/01/27

Priyan

Safyaan Sharif is in Scotland's T20 World Cup squad [Cricinfo]

Cricket Scotland has received assurances that the ICC is working “very, very hard” to ensure Scotland’s players will be granted Indian visas in time for their opening T20 World Cup fixture on February 7 – including fast bowler Safyaan Shariff, who has Pakistani heritage.

Scotland were the beneficiaries of Bangladesh’s last-minute withdrawal from the World Cup as the highest-ranked team who had not already qualified, and named a 15-man squad on Monday afternoon which is due to fly to India later this week.

The state of political and diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan has resulted in regular delays for Pakistani nationals or those with Pakistani heritage when applying for Indian visas in recent years, including several cricketers.

But Cricket Scotland is confident that Sharif – who was born in Huddersfield to a Pakistani father and a British-Pakistani mother before moving to Scotland aged seven – will be granted a visa in time for the team’s opening match against West Indies in Kolkata.

“We are all committed [to] working with the ICC to make that happen,” Trudy Lindblade, Cricket Scotland’s chief executive, said on Monday. “The visa piece is always slightly an unknown, and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got three days or whether you’ve got 45 days.

“Certainly that’s been our focus in the last 48 hours: just getting those visas done so our players are all ready to go. They’re all in the middle of submitting their visas and we will be there on the ground in India as quickly as we can, so it’s just a matter of time now.

“[The ICC] can only give us the assurances of the bits that they can control and, absolutely, of the bits that they control, we are working with them and obviously they’re working with the BCCI and local people on the ground there to make sure that we are getting all of that support that we need.

“So, absolutely, [they have given] the assurance that they can provide of things that were in their control. There is a team working very, very hard to not just help us, but to help 19 other teams as well that are also going to a World Cup. But we are their intense focus right now.”

Scotland will also apply for visas for two travelling reserves and three non-travelling reserves so that they will be able to field a team even in the event of delays and their head of performance, Steve Snell, said that the ICC had been “fantastic” in supporting their hurried preparations.

“We also anticipate some support whenever we can [get it] from the BCCI,” Snell said. “I don’t think we need to escalate that any further to get into the country, because you’d suggest that Scotland being invited to attend the World Cup and then not being able to get there wouldn’t be a great look for anybody.”

There are three changes to Scotland’s squad since the 2024 T20 World Cup, when they narrowly missed out on qualification for the Super 8s, with 19-year-old Afghanistan-born fast bowler Zainullah Ihsan in line for an international debut after winning his maiden call-up.

Tom Bruce, who played 17 T20Is for New Zealand as a middle-order batter from 2017 to 2020, is another significant inclusion, having switched allegiance to Scotland last year and made his ODI debut for them in August.

Chris Sole, the express fast bowler, is a notable absentee. Sole, who has regularly registered speeds in excess of 90mph/145kph, has played franchise cricket in the ILT20 and the CPL and featured for Scotland at their last World Cup appearance, but has not played a professional match since late 2024 as he focuses on a non-playing career in recruitment.

Ihsan, Bruce and batter Finlay McCreath are the three players involved who did not feature in the 2024 T20 World Cup squad, replacing Sole, Oli Haris and Jack Jarvis (who is one of the travelling reserves).

Hampshire seamer Scott Currie, who played three ODIs in early 2024, was not considered as he is no longer eligible for selection.

Currie, whose older brother Brad is part of the squad, was picked by England for their T20I series against Ireland in September and while he did not win a cap, the fact that he was named as an official substitute on their teamsheet renders him unavailable for Scotland until September 2028 under ICC regulations.

Scotland are due to play warm-up matches against Afghanistan and Namibia in Bengaluru on February 2 and 4 before their opening fixture against West Indies in Kolkata. Their other first-round matches are against Italy, England and Nepal, with the top two teams in Group B then qualifying for the Super 8s stage.

“The squad selection is subject to all player and staff visa applications being approved,” Cricket Scotland said in a statement. “Given the limited notice for Scotland’s participation at the tournament and timescale for selecting players, two travelling reserves have been selected while three others will be non-travelling reserves.”

Scotland squad for T20 World Cup:
Richie Berrington (capt), Tom Bruce, Matthew Cross, Brad Currie, Oli Davidson, Chris Greaves, Zainullah Ihsan, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Finlay McCreath, Brandon McMullen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Mark Watt, Brad Wheal
Travelling reserves: Jasper Davidson, Jack Jarvis
Non-travelling reserves: Mackenzie Jones, Chris McBride, Charlie Tear

[Cricinfo]

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England bat, Sri Lanka bring back Wanindu Hasaranga

Published

7 hours ago

2026/01/27

Priyan

Wanindu Hasaranga was back in the Sri Lanka XI [Cricinfo]

England won the toss and chose to bat first in the deciding ODI in Colombo. Although England won the previous game chasing, the Khettarama surface tends to slow under lights, leading to its reputation as a notoriously difficult venue on which to bat second. Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka also chose to bat first when he won the toss in the first two ODIs.

Sri Lanka made one change to the XI that lost on Saturday, jettisoning seam bowler Pramod Madushan to include spin-bowling allrounder Wanidu Hasaranga, who had been rested for the first two games. This means Sri Lanka have only one frontline seamer – Asitha Fernando – in their XI, though part-time seam bowler Janith Liyanage is also in the side. The hosts also bat deep, with Hasaranga and Dunith Wellalage likely to be No. 8 and 9.

England are unchanged from Saturday, which means legspinning allrounder Rehan Ahmed again opens in place of Zak Crawley.

Blue skies prevailed over the toss at Khettarama. Though evening showers are always possible in Colombo, January tends to be among the drier months.

England: Rehan Ahmed, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (capt.), Jos Buttler (wk), Will Jacks, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid

Sri Lanka: Kamil Mishara, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka (capt.), Janith Liyanage, Pavan Rathnayake, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Jeffrey Vandersay, Asitha Fernando

[Cricinfo]