ENG vs IND | English bowlers rule the roost on rain-marred Day 1 at The Oval

England had a fresh new-ball pair of Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson to begin proceedings in the fifth Test and the latter announced his return in style by trapping Yashasvi Jaiswal plumb in his second over. KL Rahul and Sai Sudharsan dug in thereafter to build an attritional stand of 28 -- majority of which came through extras in a nine-ball over by Josh Tongue -- but a wicket always seemed to be on the horizon, and ultimately arrived when the opener chopped on a Woakes delivery. As the lacquer wore off the Dukes, conditions seemed to relatively get better for batting, allowing the well-versed duo of Sai and skipper Shubman Gill to accumulate 34 runs together before rain forced early Lunch at 72/2.

The pair picked up exactly where they had left off after the extended break as the stand swelled close to a half-century. However, just as scales were shifting in the visitors' favour, Gill erronously sprinted for a run after defending a ball back to Atkinson who struck down the stumps with aplomb. Rain arrived immediately after to inflict further misery, as India went into Tea at 83/3.

Once the rain cleared, England used the momentum to shackle India as Jamie Overton and Atkinson delivered probing spells. However, it was Tongue that earned the breakthrough with an unplayable outswinger from around the wicket to Sai who could little but nick the ball behind to Jamie Smith for 38. The right-arm quick then delivered a replica of the jaffa to dispatch another southpaw Ravindra Jadeja for single digits, leaving the visitors reeling at 123/5. Dhruv Jurel looked no more comfortable than the rest of his peers as he grinded his way to 19 and had a review overturned. Yet, as fate would have it, the young wicket-keeper prodded at an Atkinson bumper the very next ball and trudged back the dugout for a score of 19. All this while, Karun Nair kept busy at the other end, battling hard for his first fifty in Test cricket since the iconic triple ton in 2016. Previous Test's centurion Washington Sundar gave him good company at the other end, remaining unbeaten on 19 at Stumps with the partnership reading 51.

Quick call!

Nobody knows

It's a shame

How much more luck

Unless...

How not to

Spot on

Should've

Finally

So bad

Good day