The pacer had dislocated his shoulder earlier in the match
Dramatic finishes to the cricket matches are nothing new. Last ball finishes, batting collapses, double-century on a single leg and the list goes on. But the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy as a whole has been a massive episode of a Spanish soap opera and the final Test at the Oval lived up to it.
England had less than 60 runs to win and seven wickets in hand but lost five of those spread across two days. As Prasidh Krishna castled Josh Tongue for the ninth wicket with 16 runs to win, Chris Woakes had to do the painful and walk out to middle as the last man.
The problem was that he had dislocated his shoulder while fielding in the first innings and had to bat with only handed with the injured arm tucked inside a sling and locked under his jumper.
As he walked out for that daring effort to a nail-biting end to the series and the fifth Test, the Oval stood up for the 35-year-old in applause.
Until the end of the fourth day’s play, the thoughts of Woakes batting in the match seemed like a far-fetched thought everyone would scoff at. But the end of a partnership of 175 runs between Joe Root (105) and Harry Brook (111) suddenly tilted the scales.
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Woakes, who was relaxed until Prasidh sent back Root with an absolute fiery over, was suddenly back in his Test whites and pacing around the dressing room as India piled on more pressure.
With 33 runs to score and four wickets remaining on the final day, Mohammed Siraj (5-104) and Prasidh (4-126) snapped at the outside edges of the batters and got three wickets, forcing Woakes to bat.
His batting Gus Atkinson did his level best to shield Woakes from any physical stress with wild swings of the bat and but the pair had to run three runs which showed how painful it was for Woakes.
At one point, Prasidh was mulling a run-out at the non-striker’s end if Woakes left his crease too early. But the curtain fell on the match and series in pure cricketing fashion as Siraj knocked out Atkinson’s off-stump to bring up a six-run victory for India.
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