London, Aug 5 (IANS) Former England captain Michael Vaughan slammed the national team’s approach on the final day of the fifth Test against India, which they lost by a near six-run margin at The Oval on Monday.

The veteran criticised England’s high-risk approach to get the remaining 35 runs in the morning session. However, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna bowled tight lengths and took regular wickets to edge out England in the series final to level the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2-2.

“I do not want to be too hard on a team that has had a lot of misfortune this week. They went in without perhaps their most important-ever cricketer, and then lost a key bowler on the opening day. England lost by six runs to India, effectively playing with 10 men, so I do not want to be too critical,” Vaughan wrote in his column at The Telegraph.

“But the truth is, England panicked. The closer they got, within 70, they tried to be more high-risk. The approach was wrong on the final morning. It was too risky. If it takes 15 overs, so be it. You do not need to whizz 35 runs in five overs. All it needed was one steady head. Three of the last seven wickets were players dancing down the wicket to seamers.

“If India lost in that fashion, we would have said they yipped up. If South Africa lost like that, we would say they choked. It was that bad a miss. The defeat will really hurt England. When you know you should win a game, it is so painful,” he added.

Chasing 374, England were bowled out for 367, with Siraj picking a sensational 5-104 while Krishna bagged four scalps to clinch a historic win for India. England were propped up by centuries by Harry Brook (111) and Joe Root (105), but in the end, that proved insufficient.

–IANS

ab/bsk/