London: India captain Shubman Gill said Monday that squaring the Test series with England at 2-2 “means so much” after his side won a thrilling match at the Oval by six runs. England arrived on the final day of the five-game series needing just 35 runs with four wickets in hand to complete a remarkable chase of 374 but were blown away on a morning of unbearable tension. Mohammed Siraj took three of the four wickets to fall to finish with figures of 5-104. “It means so much,” Gill told the BBC. “This was a very hard-fought series. Both teams throwing punches and you could never really predict after day four who was going to win the match. “We are a young team but before the start of the series we spoke about how we didn’t want to be looked at as a young team… and I think we showed that today.” England captain Ben Stokes, who missed the Oval match with an injury, said it had been an “incredible series”, with all five matches going to a fifth and final day. “So much has been put into this series from both teams,” said the all-rounder. “The commitment and energy has been outstanding. “Stood here now, we’re bitterly disappointed we couldn’t get the series win but myself being a massive advocate of the game of Test cricket, this series has been an unbelievable advert for it across the world. “All the doubters saying it’s dying a death, this series has said the opposite.” England head coach Brendon McCullum described the game as one of the “all-time best Test matches”. “We turned up today with high hopes, but Mohammed Siraj and the passion of the Indian boys was too strong and ultimately they deserve to win this Test match,” he said. “We had our chances. We will look back on our dropped catches and the position we were in with the bat. You have to tip your caps sometimes, a guy playing in his fifth Test match bowling 30 overs, and 90mph to get the job done — fair play. “You never expect things to go according to plan.”
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