India’s lower order collapsed again on Friday as, after resuming at 204-6, they were skittled for 224 by England in less than half an hour at The Oval to leave their chances of finding the win they need to square the series hanging by a thread.
India’s tail has been their weak link all series but the middle order also failed to build on a decent end to Thursday’s play as pace bowler Josh Atkinson took five wickets on his return to action having not played a test since May.
Josh Tongue continued with his all or nothing approach from last night, spraying a ball wildly beyond the wicketkeeper for four byes then getting Karun Nair lbw for 57 to get England moving.
Washington Sundar, who showed such patience in his rearguard century to help save the fourth test, forgot that approach and tamely pulled straight to Jamie Overton to depart for 26 as the two remaining recognised batsmen went after adding a total of 11 runs off the bat between them on Friday.
Atkinson then bowled Mohammed Siraj and had Prasidh Krishna caught behind, both for ducks, to finish with 5-33 from 21.4 overs in his first appearance of the series.
Earlier the ECB said that all-rounder Chris Woakes will miss the remainder of the match after suffering a shoulder injury while fielding late on Thursday.
