India vs England 5th Test Day 5 weather forecast: Rain might once again play spoilsport as decider goes down to the wire

The final day of India’s tour in England has arrived, with the visiting team now scratching to try and hope for a miracle as England stand only 35 runs away from victory at the start of Day 5 at the Oval.

The fourth day of the match saw a premature conclusion, one that has raised questions and criticism. A period of rain late in the day was followed by enough of a dry spell and sunlight to wrap up the match then and there. As we move into the 25th day of action of this tour, the eyes will once again be on the weather gauges.

The entire week in Kennington in South London has been a fairly cold and dreary one, with dark skies and intermittent rain ensuring that long spells of cricket have been difficult to come by. A couple of rain interruptions on Day 4 mean that both teams will have a nervous eye on the skies: will there be any cloud cover that could make the oncoming second new ball an extremely tricky prospect to deal with?

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As per BBC Weather, there shouldn’t be any rain over Kennington for the first couple of hours of play, with no chance of precipitation and only a light cloud cover. These are factors that will make England’s batters breathe a sigh of relief after a closing 45 minutes on Day 4 that had them looking anxious and uncertain.

Darker skies expected around noon

However, around noon on Day 5, there will be darker clouds and a small chance of rain, 19%. India will be hoping that the darker clouds and overcast conditions arrive as soon as possible because, given the aggression Jamie Smith has shown earlier in this series, he has the ability to wrap things up quickly.

There is expected to be a strong chance of rain in the air later in the day, 2 PM local time and onwards, but this match should be easily wrapped up one way or another by the time that afternoon session rolls around.

Rain should not be a major factor on this final day, but what the skies look like just might.