India beat England by six runs in the fifth and final Test at The Oval on August 4, 2025, the narrowest margin by runs in India’s Test history, to level a rollercoaster five-match series 2-2. Chasing 374 to win the series outright, England were bowled out for 367 on the fifth morning after Joe Root and Harry Brook had threatened one of the great fourth-innings run chases, only for Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna to combine and deny them in the final session. The margin left India 224 and 396 all out across their two innings against England’s 247 and 367, a low-scoring, seam-friendly contest that nonetheless produced two of the best individual batting performances of the English summer.
A finish that went to the wire
Bad light and rain had already pushed the match into a fifth day, with England resuming on 339 for 6 knowing 35 more runs would complete a stunning series win. Instead, Prasidh Krishna struck early, bowling Josh Tongue for nought, before Siraj tore through the tail. The Oval crowd, many of whom had queued from early morning for what they hoped would be a coronation, instead watched the contest tip back toward India inside the space of forty minutes, a swing few grounds have witnessed on a fifth morning in recent Test history. Chris Woakes, his shoulder dislocated in the field earlier in the match, walked out to bat wearing a sling with 17 runs still needed, a moment that summed up the desperation of England’s chase. Siraj dismissed Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton in the same over before bowling Gus Atkinson to seal the win and complete his five-wicket haul.
Centuries in a losing cause
Root’s 105 and Brook’s 111 meant the pair became only the seventh partnership in Test history to score fourth-innings centuries in a match their side went on to lose, a statistic that underlined both the quality of the chase and the cruelty of its ending. England had looked in control for long stretches of the final two days, with Root in particular batting with the calm authority that has defined his recent Test form, before Siraj’s intervention changed the complexion of the innings inside a handful of overs.
Siraj and Prasidh share the spoils
Siraj finished with five wickets in the innings, continuing a series in which his pace and reverse-swing in helpful conditions repeatedly unsettled England’s middle order. Prasidh Krishna, playing his part with four wickets of his own, was the man who broke the game open by removing Tongue, triggering a collapse from a position where England had still fancied their chances. Together the pair bowled India to a result that few inside the ground believed was still possible when play resumed that morning.
Context: a series that swung both ways
The result meant the five-match series, contested for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, finished locked at 2-2, a fitting scoreline for a contest that had swung dramatically from one side to the other across the English summer. Both teams had already produced their share of twists, from batting collapses to defiant rearguards, and the Oval Test extended that pattern to its conclusion, with India’s bowlers eventually proving just good enough to close out a match that England’s batters had, for a time, appeared to have won.
Two dressing rooms, two readings of the same day
India’s camp pointed to the discipline of Siraj and Prasidh under pressure, with both bowlers targeting the stumps and denying the tail any width to free their arms. England’s management, while praising Root and Brook’s twin hundreds, acknowledged that the lower order’s inability to find twenty more runs against high-class seam bowling had cost them a series win that had briefly seemed within reach. Woakes batting through pain with a dislocated shoulder was held up by England’s dressing room as a mark of the fight shown throughout the innings, even in defeat.
What’s next
For India, the result offered further evidence that their pace attack can close out tight finishes away from home, a quality selectors will want carried into the next World Test Championship cycle. For England, the challenge is to convert the fight shown in fourth-innings chases like this one into results, with the batting group’s ability to build big totals now more of a talking point than their capacity to threaten one. Root’s role as the side’s senior batter will draw fresh scrutiny too, given how close his 105 came to delivering a series win before the tail failed to close it out. Both sides will have time to reflect before their next Test assignments, but the Oval will be remembered as a match that had almost everything, and one that India, in the end, refused to lose. Broadcasters and former players were quick to rank it among the great modern Test finishes, a reminder of why the format’s fifth-day tension remains unmatched elsewhere in the sport.
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