Stats: KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant shatter multiple records
With an easy win for England loomed large before the start of day five of the fifth and final Test against India at the Oval, London, two of India's NextGen cricketers, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant showed why they are considered so special by the fans and the pundits.
Starting the day at the overnight score of 48, Rahul reached his first fifty of the series quickly before he played some fantastic shots and gave the fans something to cherish. In the meantime, Ajinkya Rahane threw his wicket away trying to play a slog sweep when he was on 37. Debutant Hanuma Vihari, who scored a fifty in the first innings, departed for a duck.
That's when Rishabh Pant joined Rahul in the middle and the next three hours gave the fans some breath-taking experience as the duo frustrated the English bowlers. Rahul reached his fifth Test ton while Pant started off slowly before he started playing his natural game. They made sure that India didn't lose a single wicket in the second session and towards the end of it, Pant reached his maiden Test century with a huge six off Adil Rashid.
After putting on a 204-run stand for the sixth-wicket, Rahul, who was batting on 149 with the help of 20 fours and one six, was castled by Rashid after the ball spun a long way after pitching on the rough way outside his off-stump and hit the to of Rahul's off-stump. Soon after, Pant holed out to Moeen Ali off the bowling of Rashid for a well-made 114 off 146 balls with the help of 15 fours and four sixes.
Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant Sharma tried their best to salvage a draw for India but their resistance ended against the run of play, handing England a 118-win.
Let us take a look at few of the most important numbers from the day five of the Test.
1 - Rishabh Pant's 114 is the highest Test score by an Indian wicketkeeper in England, overtaking the 92 scored by MS Dhoni at The Oval in 2007.
1 - The 204-run partnership between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant is the highest sixth-wicket partnership for India in the fourth innings of a Test.
1 - KL Rahul's 50 is the first by an Indian opening batsman in 32 combined innings this year in South Africa & England.
2 - The 204-run stand between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant is the second highest partnership for India in the fourth innings of a Test.
1 - Jimmy Anderson, with 564 Test wickets, becomes the fast bowler with most Test wickets, overtaking Glenn McGrath's tally of 563 wickets.
2 - KL Rahul's 149 is the second highest score by an Indian opener in the fourth innings of a Test.
3 - This is only the third time four Indians have scored a century in a single Test series in England.
3 - KL Rahul becomes the third opener after Sunil Gavaskar and Shikhar Dhawan to score a century in the fourth innings of an away Test.
3 - Hanuma Vihari becomes the third Indian after Gundappa Viswanath and Devang Gandhi to score a fifty and a duck on Test debut.
4 - Rishabh Pant becomes the fourth wicketkeeper-batsman after Vijay Manjrekar, Ajay Ratra and Wriddhiman Saha to score a Test hundred outside Asia.
4 - Rishabh Pant becomes the fourth Indian batsman after Kapil Dev, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh to reach his maiden Test hundred with a six.
4 - This is the fourth instance, two batsmen, scoring a century for India in the fourth innings of a Test.
7 - Rishabh Pant becomes the seventh wicketkeeper to score a Test hundred after the fourth innings.