Even as the conditions changed, bright sunshine alternating with gloom, the Indian batters gritted their teeth and fought it out.
Shubman Gill's rash pursuit of his 744th run in the series was a mistake he won't forgive himself for; having built a huge reservoir of runs in the series, Gill committed a cardinal sin while going for a mere drop, the 744th, on the first day of the fifth Test.
Gill had a case of brain fade -- he patted the ball back just off the square on the off-side and started off for a run that just did not exist.
Gus Atkinson had the elementary task of striding the few steps to the ball, swivelling and throwing the wickets down -- a generous gift from Gill. The rattling of the stumps seemed to bring Gill to his senses, and he was aghast.
Gill was out for 21 on Day 1 of the fifth Test; his dismissal could prove to be one of the decisive moments of the game, which India must win to force a drawn series.
The hope of victory had receded further by the end of play as India lost Sai Sudharsan and Ravindra Jadeja. Josh Tongue, the tall paceman, back in the playing XI after England made wholesale changes to the team, produced two unplayable deliveries to the two left-handers, Sudharsan and Jadeja, angled in from around the stumps, then moving just enough to take the outside edge of the bat.
Dhruv Jurel, in at No. 7, was given out LBW before being reprieved on DRS appeal. He then had his own moment of brain-fade next ball -- he tried to cut an Atkinson ball that was too close and too steep for the shot, and only edged it to Harry Brook at second slip.
At 153-6, with the sky overcast and the pitch distinctly green for the first time in the series, the end seemed nigh. India's hopes were like the dimming of the light at The Oval.
Then, even as the conditions changed, bright sunshine alternating with gloom, the Indian batters gritted their teeth and fought it out; Karun Nair, in his 34th year and trying to salvage a Test career that seemed destined to end with one triple century and little else, defended stoutly and drove with authority; Washington Sunder, centurion in the previous Test, was steady, even forceful when given the opportunity to drive. The two have added 51 runs for the seventh wicket, preventing complete disaster.
Gill couldn't have chosen a worst time to lose his mind and his wicket; for K L Rahul, another multiple centurion for India in the series, had chopped the ball onto his wickets for 14; and Gill's team is without Rishabh Pant, who had made 134, 118, 25, 65, 74, 9, and 54 in the series.
Gill's losing the toss, too, was a setback, though not a surprise -- India have lost 15 international tosses in a row now, under different captains. But the toss-loss today was very significant for the pitch was decidedly green, it had pace and bounce, the air was heavy after rain and batting wasn't easy. Gill would have loved to choose to bowl first, which Ollie Pope gleefully did.
Early on, England had been a bit wayward to begin with before Atkinson struck -- Yashasvi Jaiswal missed one that was angled from around the stump and the third umpire gave him out after Pope made a DRS appeal.
Nair scored his first half-century, 3,149 days after his monumental 303 not out against England in 2016. After he was dropped for the fourth Test, it seemed his career was over -- today he has revived it, gritting it out in the toughest batting conditions in the series so far, even as the centurions of the previous Tests lost the plot.
WATCH: Karun Nair's Fifty Stablizes India On Day 1
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