Substitute James Henry headed a 90th-minute equaliser to earn Oxford a 2-2 draw against Sky Bet League One leaders Portsmouth in a game that burst into life in the second half.

Tyler Goodrham shot the U’s in front in the 45th minute, taking Marcus McGuane’s pass and firing low past goalkeeper Will Norris and into the bottom corner after a pacy break.

Colby Bishop prodded the ball home from a yard to level in the 69th minute after a scramble in Oxford’s box when grounded keeper Simon Eastwood appeared to have the ball under control but then lost it.

It was Bishop’s 15th goal of the season.

Callum Lang, making his Pompey debut after signing from Wigan just three days ago, came off the bench in the 62nd minute – and with 10 minutes to go he flicked the ball past Eastwood from 12 yards after poor defending to put John Mousinho’s team 2-1 up.

But Oxford snatched a draw which takes them back into the play-off places when Norris parried Mark Harris’ shot and Henry nodded in from close range.

Bottom side Livingston showed fighting spirit to come from behind twice to grab a 2-2 draw against fellow strugglers Ross County at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

Striker Simon Murray’s terrific strike after 28 minutes gave the Staggies the lead but Livi midfielder Scott Pittman poached an equaliser just before the break.

Murray fired in a second in the 85th minute but Livi substitute Dan MacKay levelled with a header three minutes later for a deserved point.

The Lions have gone 15 league games without a win, remain six points adrift of second-bottom County in the table and have played two games more than the Dingwall men, but David Martindale can take some encouragement from his side’s display.

Seeking solutions – and fast – Martindale brought back Joel Nouble, Pittman, Kurtis Guthrie and Jamie Brandon.

Derek Adams took some hope from the narrow 1-0 defeat away to Celtic on Saturday and kept the same team which included six January signings – George Wickens, Loick Ayina, Teddy Jenks, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Brandon Khela and Eli King.

Midfielder Yan Dhanda, who has agreed a pre-contract with Hearts, captained the side in front of a sparse crowd.

The match took time to warm up.

In the 24th minute a James Penrice cross from wide on the left almost caught out County goalkeeper Wickens, who scooped the ball away from under his crossbar with Livi failing to capitalise on a moment of panic in the visiting box.

Moments later, the Highland club took the lead.

Murray raced onto a searching Dhanda pass and under pressure inside the box from defender Ayo Obiliye he hammered the ball high past keeper Michael McGovern from a tight angle.

The offside flag went up but a VAR check confirmed the goal, allowing Murray to celebrate his 12th of the season.

Obiliye went close with a curling effort from 20 yards as Livi responded and just before the break, Pittman reacted quickly to a Guthrie knockdown inside the box and stabbed the ball past Wickens from six yards.

Livi’s Steven Bradley missed the target with a low drive before the interval and play zipped from end to end when play resumed.

In the 68th minute, McGovern made up for fumbling Dhanda’s cross inside his six-yard box by blocking a close-range drive from Staggies substitute Jordan White.

However, Livingston looked like they could snatch another goal and a series of deliveries into the County box were repelled.

Pittman curled a shot just past a post and then, with the goal gaping, attacker Bruce Anderson missed the target from a cutback from fellow sub MacKay, who may have been offside anyway.

But there was late drama.

County raced up the park and when a cross from substitute Josh Sims arrived at Murray at the back post, he fired past McGovern from 12 yards.

Livi were not to be denied, though, and MacKay headed in a Jason Holt cross to maintain the status quo at the bottom.

Ellis Simms scored a late equaliser but Coventry’s three-match winning run came to an end with a 2-2 draw against Bristol City.

Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s seventh goal of the season put the Sky Blues ahead with a rare foray forward in the first half before Rob Dickie equalised on the stroke of half-time.

Nahki Wells put the Robins ahead for the first time with a smart finish with seven minutes remaining but Simms was on hand to tap home an equaliser just two minutes later.

The visitors were without a win in four Championship outings but started the evening on the front foot when Jason Knight tested Brad Collins from distance inside the opening minutes.

Taylor Gardner-Hickman made his loan move from West Brom a permanent one earlier this month and Collins was forced into action once again to beat the midfielder’s swerving long-range effort to safety.

Coventry had barely threatened the Robins’ goal in the opening half an hour but when Sakamoto took the ball down inside the box and created an angle to squeeze his shot into the far corner, the Sky Blues had an unlikely lead.

It was a first half Bristol City had at the very least deserved to end on level terms and they did so through Dickie, who glanced a header in off the far post after a wicked ball in from Gardner-Hickman.

It was the second time this season the defender had scored against the Sky Blues after the former QPR man netted the winner against Mark Robins’ men back in October.

Both Coventry and Bristol City face replays if they are to progress to the fifth round of the FA Cup, and both sides cancelled each other out during a quiet start to the second half.

A potential tie with Maidstone awaits Coventry if they beat Sheffield Wednesday, whilst Bristol City could host Manchester United if they beat Nottingham Forest.

Callum O’Hare flashed a shot wide for the Sky Blues before substitute Ross McCrorie blazed his effort over at the other end, while Dickie was inches away from poking the visitors ahead with 15 minutes to go.

Wells thought he had given Bristol City a fifth away win of the season when he latched onto a loose ball in the box and fired home his first goal since September.

But the hosts were back level when Max O’Leary spilled Liam Kitching’s piledriver into the path of Simms, who tapped home an immediate leveller.

Simms could have snatched all three points for Coventry after Milan van Ewijk’s tantalising cross flashed across the face of goal.

There was still a chance for Liam Manning’s men to earn all three points, but Collins’ smart reaction save preserved Coventry’s 10-match unbeaten run in the league as he denied Harry Cornick.

Fulham’s scoring woes continued as their missed opportunities saw them held to a goalless Premier League draw with Everton at Craven Cottage.

After last week’s exit from both the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup, the west Londoners failed to bounce back with a win over an Everton side, who now sit in the bottom three following Luton’s 4-0 victory over Brighton.

Raul Jimenez, who scored four goals in December, could not replicate last month’s success before Rodrigo Muniz was largely anonymous when called upon in the second half.

Fulham started with purpose. After Andreas Pereira’s earlier strike sailed over the crossbar, Antonee Robinson forced Jordan Pickford into action when he cut onto his weaker right foot and won a corner for the hosts with a driven effort from range.

After last week’s poor showing in front of goal during both cup defeats, the Cottagers’ lack of cutting edge seemed to continue when Jimenez’s shot managed to go out for a throw-in instead of hitting the target.

And they almost rued their missed opportunities when Everton failed to convert the chance of the match in the 24th minute.

Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno parried Ashley Young’s curling free-kick into the path of James Tarkowski, who looked set to tap the Toffees ahead.

Towering defender Issa Diop had other ideas, positioning himself perfectly and nodding Tarkowski’s rebounded effort onto the crossbar before a herd of white shirts swarmed the six-yard area and kept the scores level.

Pereira continued to bombard the Everton goal with pot shots but it was Jimenez who would be the most frustrated after another glaring miss.

Pickford’s save from a Timothy Castagne shot gave the Mexico international a golden opportunity to score into an open net but he opened his body up too much and missed the target from close range.

Jimenez’s first-half display saw him substituted at the break and it was Everton’s striker who looked the most dangerous when Dominic Calvert-Lewin rose highest from a corner and clipped the crossbar, nearly edging the visitors ahead.

On the hour mark, Castagne won a flick-on from a set-piece and was also denied by the woodwork as both sides’ frustrations began to grow.

The momentum continued in the hosts’ favour but a remarkable save from England number one Pickford kept it even.

Willian – who had been a shadow of his usual self – jinked past his man and delivered a well-weighted cross to Tosin Adarabioyo, whose header looked destined for the top corner but was denied by Pickford’s acrobatic fingertip stop.

Luton scored twice in the opening two minutes and 17 seconds en route to a stunning 4-0 win against Brighton at Kenilworth Road.

Aided by a superb hat-trick from striker Elijah Adebayo, this was comfortably the hosts’ biggest Premier League win and their most commanding performance.

It was earned in swashbuckling style as they dismissed an insipid Brighton to move out of the relegation zone for the first time in nearly two months.

Chiedozie Ogbene also netted during a first half in which Roberto De Zerbi’s side simply could not cope with what came their way, a shadow of the team that won the corresponding fixture 4-1 on the opening weekend.

Luton made a start beyond manager Rob Edwards’ most rose-tinted expectations.

Adebayo headed his first after 19 seconds. Ogbene received the ball on the edge of the box and crossed to the far post towards Carlton Morris.

The Hatters captain, leaping determinedly above his marker, nodded back across goal to Adebayo, who got there before goalkeeper Jason Steele to convert.

Brighton barely had time to draw breath before it was two.

Albert Sambi Lokonga’s pinpoint pass dropped in behind the visitors’ defence, which had pushed up, leaving a straight race to the ball between Ogbene and Steele.

It was won comfortably by the fleet-footed Luton winger who toed it beyond the keeper and, with 137 seconds on the clock, poked into an empty goal to cap a breathtaking start.

Rarely, if ever, have Brighton under De Zerbi been so blown away as they were in the opening 25 minutes.

Jordan Clark came close to inflicting further damage when he cut in on his left foot and had a shot blocked by the legs of Steele.

By then, De Zerbi had already lost James Milner to injury, with any pre-game ploy to stymie Luton sinking into disarray.

The stats said Brighton had enjoyed 60 per cent possession but almost all of it had been in their own half, passing themselves in circles in a bid to navigate Luton’s ravenous high pressing.

Pascal Gross scooped a shot more in hope than expectation from outside the box as the Seagulls struggled to come to terms with their predicament.

Lewis Dunk stopped Adebayo with a finely-timed last-ditch slide inside the six-yard box as the striker bore down threatening to wrap the game up after 35 minutes, before Clark had his second good try of the night deflect inches wide.

It was a momentary reprieve.

Adebayo’s second and Luton’s third was a gem and owed everything to the timing of the striker’s run, hanging just behind Brighton’s defensive line until Ross Barkley released his pass.

The finish ripped past Steele at his near post.

Brighton had won three of their previous 15 league games, success this season season being propped up by progress in Europe and in the FA Cup.

Here, they showed nothing of the form that saw them start the campaign with five wins out of six.

Luton’s goals were getting easier to come by.

In the 55th minute Adebayo completed his hat-trick, heading in Alfie Doughty’s corner from amongst a static Brighton defence, the only movement towards the ball coming from striker Joao Pedro who inadvertently flicked it into his opposite number’s path.

Thomas Kaminski made a late save from Danny Welbeck which was worthy of his outfield team-mates’ efforts.

For Brighton, it had been a chastening night.

Lee Ashcroft’s back-post header earned Dundee a point to move them into the cinch Premiership top six in a Pittodrie draw that will do nothing to ease the pressure on Aberdeen boss Barry Robson.

The Dons’ hopes of matching last term’s third-place finish have been all but extinguished before January is out, with their form being patchy at best.

And while Bojan Miovski’s first-half penalty provided some brief hope of an improvement, Aberdeen ultimately served up the kind of insipid performance that has some sections of the Dons support calling for the manager’s head.

The crowd’s nerves would not have been helped by an early Dundee attack that saw Zach Robinson’s low cross only narrowly missed by the sliding Amadou Bakayoko.

A Kelle Roos clearance would later come off the on-loan Forest Green Rovers man but, fortunately for the Aberdeen keeper, spun away to safety.

Aberdeen had chances of their own in between, Miovski seizing on a short pass from returning Dundee loanee Owen Beck only for Trevor Carson to save well.

Captain Graeme Shinnie should have done better when he latched onto a long ball over the top but, in trying to lift over Carson, put the ball well wide of target with just the keeper to beat.

Miovski gave his side the lead from the spot, stroking into the bottom right corner after former Don Joe Shaughnessy had taken Ester Sokler’s standing leg in attempting to clear a Jack Milne cross.

Another Milne cross saw Sokler this time head into the arms of Carson before the half ended with a late VAR check on Leighton Clarkson’s foul on Lyall Cameron, with no further action taken.

A smart near-post finish by Sokler seemed to have put the Dons 2-0 up five minutes after the interval only to be denied by the offside flag, and that lifted Dundee.

Roos saved Ashcroft’s back-post header from a left-wing corner but after Beck trudged across the park to take from the other flank, his delivery found the same man who this time turned home to level the scores.

From there the match descended into a bore draw; neither keeper was threatened and the main route forward was the long ball, a tactic that has long fed into the criticism of Robson.

With matches against both halves of the Old Firm up next, he will fear the chants of “sacked in the morning” doing the rounds at Pittodrie – as Cameron flashed a late Dundee chance wide – may not be far off the mark.

Arsenal overcame a sluggish first-half performance to cut the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool to two points after a 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest.

The Gunners looked toothless in the first half, but rallied to register three big points thanks to goals from Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka.

The result leaves them on the coattails of Liverpool, who can extend their lead back to five points against Chelsea on Wednesday night.

Forest had no intention of going for the win in a pragmatic approach deployed by Nuno Espirito Santo, but they made a game of it late on as Taiwo Awoniyi slammed home in the 89th minute.

Arsenal saw it out to end a three-game losing streak at the City Ground and exorcise the ghosts of last season’s defeat, which saw their title challenge come to an end.

Forest’s situation at the foot of the Premier League is looking precarious, as they sit two points above the relegation zone with the threat of a points deduction for breaking financial rules hanging over them.

It is not in Nuno’s make-up to play an expansive game and his plan was to put men behind the ball and ask Arsenal the question of whether they could break them down.

The first half provided an answer of a resounding no, as for all their possession and territorial advantage the Gunners lacked a cutting edge to trouble Forest.

They had seven shots on target but none of them tested their former team-mate Matt Turner in the Forest goal, with Saka’s snapshot which deflected off Murillo and just wide the nearest they came to breaking the deadlock in the opening 45 minutes.

Forest offered next to nothing as an attacking force, registering just one pass in the final third in the opening half-hour, with Danilo’s drive over the crossbar from distance their only real foray forward.

The Gunners began to turn the screw after the second half and put Forest’s goal under serious threat for the first time.

Turner was forced into his first save when he palmed away Saka’s deflected effort with a strong hand before their best moment came four minutes later.

An intricate move involving Saka and Martin Odegaard led to Jesus being played in but he smashed his effort from a narrow angle into a post.

Eventually Arsenal’s pressure told as they took the lead in the 65th minute, though Turner will not want to see it again.

Forest switched off from Zinchenko’s throw-in and Jesus burst to the byline where his toe-poked shot went through Turner’s legs and into the back of the net.

Turner has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after a number of high-profile mistakes, but has been backed by Nuno, himself a former goalkeeper, though this may change things.

It was 2-0 seven minutes later after a breakaway goal. Gonzalo Montiel fluffed a clearance on the halfway line, skewing straight to Odegaard, who set Jesus free and he picked out Saka at the far post, with the England international making no mistake.

Forest had rarely threatened but Awoniyi, making his first appearance since November, converted after William Saliba’s mistake late on, though they could find a leveller.

Jurgen Klinsmann overcame Roberto Mancini as South Korea advanced to the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup on penalties after a dramatic draw against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

South Korea won 4-2 in the shoot-out after the round-of-16 match had ended 1-1 after extra time.

Defeat will be particularly hard for Mancini to take as Saudi Arabia led 1-0 deep into stoppage time at Education City Stadium through Abdullah Radif's 46th-minute strike.

Cho Gue-sung levelled the game in the 99th minute to send it into an additional period, then South Korea goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo was the hero in the shoot-out when saving penalties from Sami Al Naji and Abdulrahman Ghareeb.

Hwang Hee-chan converted the winner from the spot to send his country through to the last eight and a match against Australia on Friday.

Uzbekistan are also into the quarter-finals after beating Thailand 2-1, setting up a clash with hosts and defending champions Qatar.

Azizbek Turgunboev put Uzbekistan ahead in the 37th minute, controlling Diyor Kholmatov's diagonal pass on his chest and volleying low past Patiwat Khammai.

Thailand equalised through Supachok Sarachat's curling effort from outside the box 13 minutes after half-time, but it took just seven more minutes for Uzbekistan to regain the lead with what proved to be the decisive goal from Abbosbek Fayzullayev, who struck from distance to beat Khammai.

Anthony Edwards claimed the Minnesota Timberwolves were "playing eight-on-five" due to the "terrible" officiating in their win over the Oklahoma City Thunder at the top of the West.

The T-Wolves opened up a lead to the Thunder at the top of the conference courtesy of a 107-101 victory in which Edwards scored 27 points.

But rather than revel in that win, Edwards focused on the referees after the game, furious with one particular call that saw a potential foul go unpunished after he drove to the basket inside the final two minutes.

The former first overall pick accepted he would be punished for his comments but did not appear to care.

"I'm going to take the fine, because the refs did not give us no calls tonight," he told the television broadcast, adding to ESPN: "The refs were bad tonight. Yeah, they were terrible. We were playing eight-on-five."

Edwards could at least take comfort in the result, saying: "The cat got their tongue tonight, so it's all good. It's not fair, but it's all good."

The 22-year-old was not alone in taking issue with the officiating in the NBA on Monday as Anthony Davis argued Dillon Brooks should have been ejected in the Los Angeles Lakers' loss to the Houston Rockets.

Houston were already well on their way to a 135-119 win when Brooks tussled with LeBron James and left the Lakers superstar on the floor holding his face, while the same Rockets player appeared to shove Jarred Vanderbilt in the air before the LA man was himself ejected following an altercation between the pair.

"You take a hard foul," said Davis. "It's part of basketball.

"But you're just not going to blatantly push someone in their back when they have no control of their body in the air. I think he should have got ejected for that.

"And then obviously you know that him and Bron have their whatever, and from what I saw, it was just a blatant hit on LeBron to the face."

Andy Murray has no immediate plans to call time on his career and vowed: “I won’t quit.”

The two-time Wimbledon winner, 36, was dumped out of the first round in both the Brisbane International and Australian Open and remains winless in 2024 following his third defeat of the new year.

Murray let slip a one-set lead against Benoit Paire to lose 6-2 6-7 3-6 in his opening match of the Open Sud de France and has not won a competitive match since his victory over Yannick Hanfmann in Basel in October 2023.

After the match, some questioned whether it was time for Murray to bring his playing career to a close, but the Scot has pledged to keep on fighting.

Murray responded to a post on X, formerly Twitter, by saying: “Tarnishing my legacy? Do me a favour. I’m in a terrible moment right now I’ll give you that.

“Most people would quit and give up in my situation right now. But I’m not most people and my mind works differently.

“I won’t quit. I will keep fighting and working to produce the performances I know I’m capable of.”

A much-changed Chelsea side eased to victory at Paris FC to end their Women’s Champions League group stage undefeated.

First-half headers from Fran Kirby and Mia Fishel before late efforts from Guro Reiten and Maren Mjelde secured a comfortable 4-0 victory in the French capital for the Blues.

Emma Hayes’ side had already guaranteed themselves a quarter-final spot and she took the opportunity to shuffle her pack.

After an even opening, it was England international Kirby who broke the deadlock with the visitors’ first clear opportunity.

Jelena Cankovic crossed to the back post where Kirby arrived unmarked to head home for her first Champions League goal of the campaign.

The hosts, making their group-stage debut – having knocked Arsenal out earlier in the tournament – responded well as Chelsea goalkeeper Zecira Musovic was forced into a smart save, courtesy of an acute Mathilde Bourdieu.

Paris, though, had not learnt their lesson from Kirby’s opener and were caught out in startlingly-similar fashion later in the half as Cankovic this time crossed for Fishel to head home.

With the hosts needing victory to keep alive their hopes of reaching the last eight, Julie Dufour missed a sitter after the restart, leaning back and firing over the crossbar from close range.

A number of defensive mix-ups allowed Chelsea to wrap up the win as Reiten was the beneficiary, tapping home after miscommunication on the edge of the Paris box.

There was more questionable defending as Mjelde flicked home a corner with goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie poorly positioned.

Chelsea were good value for their win and will be seeded for the quarter-final draw on February 6 – avoiding some of Europe’s big-hitters.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has full faith in new Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers despite his opening defeat to the Denver Nuggets on Monday.

Rivers made his Bucks bow on the sideline in Denver after replacing first-year coach Adrian Griffin, but Milwaukee were beaten 113-107 by another of the NBA's best teams.

An NBA champion as coach of the Boston Celtics in 2008, Rivers is vastly experienced but is taking over a team in the middle of a season for the first time.

There will be an adjustment period, but that is something superstar Antetokounmpo is prepared for.

"He was great," the two-time MVP said of Rivers. "Everybody has to have patience. It's new – the way we play, the way we defend, it's going to take a while to get used to.

"We're slowly, slowly adjusting, changing a couple stuff. Coaching staff have got to have patience with the players; players have got to have patience with the coaching staff.

"But I feel like for the first game, it was good."

Indeed, for all the criticism of the Bucks' defense, Rivers felt the blame for the loss to the Nuggets lay with an offense led by Antetokounmpo and offseason signing Damian Lillard.

"I told our guys: anyone who told you that you couldn't play defense lied," Rivers said afterwards. "You proved that tonight. You competed tonight. Our half-court defense was excellent.

"I think tonight was an offensive loss. I didn't think we were crisp offensively.

"Dame and Giannis have played 40 games together in their life, Joker [Nikola Jokic] and [Jamal] Murray have played... you know?

"And if you looked at the game tonight, they had it going, our guys couldn't get it going, and that was the difference."

If not for Rivers' return to the coaching arena, the focus in this game would have been on a battle between Antetokounmpo and Jokic that the Nuggets center edged, finishing with a triple-double of 25 points, 16 rebounds and 12 assists.

"That's why I play, to play these kinds of games, to play under the pressure, to play tight games," Jokic said. "I like to play under those circumstances."

Goals at the start of each half ensured Mali advanced to the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals with a 2-1 victory over Burkina Faso.

Mali have not trailed in the tournament so far and their chances of doing that were minimised when Edmond Tapsoba put through his own goal three minutes in, but Burkina Faso had Herve Koffi to thank for keeping the deficit to just one at the break.

Lassine Sinayoko doubled Mali’s lead with the first chance of the second period and Aston Villa winger Bertrand Traore brought Burkina Faso back into it from the penalty spot. Mali, however, held on to book their spot against Ivory Coast in the last eight despite a late offside scare.

Mali came racing out of the blocks and opened the scoring with their first chance after Amadou Haidara’s initial header came crashing off a post, with Tapsoba nudging the ball into his own net on the rebound.

Burkina Faso were reduced to half chances throughout the opening half-hour and came closest from an audacious long shot from Traore which comfortably rolled into the grasp of Djigui Diarra.

Mali looked the more likely to add a second and Sinayoko unleashed a first-time half-volley from close range which was magnificently kept out by Koffi.

Another Mali chance came and went a couple of minutes later when Kamory Doumbia found space outside the box before he let fly and smashed across goal, but Diarra watched the ball roll just wide of the far post.

It took three minutes in the first half for Mali to score again to make it 2-0 as Sinayoko was let through on goal and coolly slotted under Koffi’s legs to double their advantage.

Burkina Faso were given the opportunity to get back into the match after VAR adjudged Boubakar Kouyate had handled the ball inside the box and Traore stepped up for the resulting penalty to dispatch his third of the tournament.

Despite being second best in the first half, Burkina Faso almost brought themselves level with 20 minutes to go as a chance fell for Mohamed Konate, his powerful effort well saved by Diarra before he kept Cedric Badolo out on the follow-up.

Burkina Faso thought they found the equaliser at the death when Issoufou Dayo glanced home from a free-kick but the assistant referee’s offside flag came to Mali’s rescue.

England are ready for anything India’s groundstaff throw at them in the coming weeks, with wicketkeeper Ben Foakes recalling the “horrific wickets” that greeted them on their previous Test tour.

The visitors made the short flight from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam on Tuesday, still basking in their stunning first-Test victory but with minds already turning to their next assignment.

Three years ago they found themselves in a similar position, 1-0 up after winning the series opener, and proceeded to lose the next three by crushing margins as the pitches in Chennai and Ahmedabad offered extravagant turn from the off.

With India’s spinners running riot, England had a top score of 205 in six innings, and it would be no great surprise if the hosts attempted to serve up similar surfaces after their shock defeat last time out.

Foakes was part of the side that was bamboozled on bone dry tracks in 2021 and remembers the trip with a grimace.

“The last time we were here all three were probably the worst pitches I’ve batted on,” said Foakes.

“From memory that first Test was played on a flat wicket and then they went to raging bunsens (turners). Going into that, I was thinking ‘oh, these are horrific wickets, I just need to find a way to stay in’.

“I don’t know (if it will be the same again) but it will be interesting to see.”

India captain Rohit Sharma had his say on the matter recently when his side defeated South Africa on a green seamer in Cape Town, telling reporters: “I don’t mind playing on pitches like this as long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and doesn’t complain about Indian pitches.”

But just as they found a way to prevail in the Proteas’ own conditions, Foakes feels confident England are now able to win a trial by spin.

It was the tourists who batted best against the turning ball in Hyderabad, with Ollie Pope’s magnificent 196 exemplifying the team’s shared commitment to sweeping, reverse sweeping and ramping.

Debutant spinner Tom Hartley then claimed seven wickets to outshine the home attack, leaving England content that they have the tools to succeed if India lean hard on home comforts again.

“I think the way some of the lads have played it with their sweep shots can definitely counter the extreme spin,” said Foakes.

“Obviously Popey put on a bit of a masterclass in how to do that, so I think quite a few of the lads have a game plan that will do well on those pitches. If that’s the situation you’ve got to be positive, put it back on the bowler and put them under pressure.

“It’s more of a mindset shift of how to go about it because in those conditions the bowler is massive favourite to win the contest so it’s how many blows you can put in.

“Before there was more of a fear of getting out and that put us in our shells. Now there’s not that worrying about getting out.”

Foakes’ appearance in the series opener was his first since the agonising one-run defeat in Wellington almost a year ago. He was dropped for the Ashes, with England restoring the fit-again Jonny Bairstow to keeping duties.

It was not the first time he has found his world-class glovework sacrificed for the team’s balance but he justified his recall.

His second-innings stand of 112 with Pope was the biggest of the match and then he finished a tidy game behind the stumps with two stumpings off Hartley.

“I obviously found it difficult (to miss the Ashes). You go through a few emotions. But there were no hard feelings,” he said.

“It still sucks getting dropped but I have come back a few times. I don’t see it as anything personal: someone picks you or picks someone else. There is no issue or anything like that. You are picked for a job and you come and try to do your best.”

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