Six-run thriller - India clinch their narrowest win in Tests
Stats highlights from India's thrilling victory against England at The Oval
Sampath Bandarupalli
04-Aug-2025 • 15 hrs ago
Mohammed Siraj was named Player of the Match • Associated Press
6 runs India's margin of victory in the fifth Test against England at The Oval, their narrowest in Tests. The previous narrowest margin was 13 runs while defending 107 against Australia in Mumbai in 2004.
The six-run margin is also the joint third-narrowest defeat for England in Tests.
332 England's score at the fall of their fifth wicket in their chase of 374. Only once before has a team scored so many runs for their first five partnerships and still lost. England were 346 for 5 in a 463-run chase against Australia at the MCG in 1977, but lost by 45 runs.
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2 Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna are the second Indian pair to take four or more wickets in both innings of a Test. Bishan Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna did it against Australia in Delhi in 1969.
Siraj and Prasidh's performance at The Oval was the 15th instance of two bowlers taking four-fors in both innings for a team, and the first since Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann for England against India in Mumbai in 2012-13.
23 Wickets for Siraj in the series against England, the joint most for an India bowler in a Test series in England, level with Jasprit Bumrah's 23 wickets in 2021-22.
195 The partnership between Joe Root and Harry Brook is the second highest in the fourth innings to end up in a defeat. The highest is 204, between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant against England in 2018, also at The Oval.
Root and Brook are only the seventh pair to score hundreds in the fourth innings of a Test and end up on the losing side. Rahul and Pant in 2018 were the last of the previous six.
4 Consecutive Test series for England without a series win against India. Their previous series win against India came in 2018, when they won 4-1 at home. England's longest streak without a series win against India was five between 1996 and 2011.
1-10 India's win-loss record in the fifth and sixth matches of an away Test series. Before the six-run win at The Oval, India had lost ten of 17 such matches, while seven ended in a draw. At home, India have a 7-4 record in 27 Tests which were the fifth or sixth matches of a series.
Sampath Bandarupalli is a statistician at ESPNcricinfo