Ravindra Jadeja’s hand went instinctively towards his helmet in sheer and utter disbelief, his eyes blank, his face swathed in complete dismay. He couldn’t comprehend what had just happened; in a way, his cricketing world had just crumbled around him.

For close to four-and-a-half hours, most of them alongside two pacers with most modest batting credentials, the all-rounder had waged a grim battle, backs to the wall but spirit unbowed, the mindset defiant. With first Jasprit Bumrah and later Mohammed Siraj, he put on 58 runs for the last two wickets. He farmed the strike, he kept out the good balls, he turned down singles, he barely put a foot wrong.

Nearly scuppered England

The 36-year-old was intent on turning a lost cause around. At 112 for eight when Nitish Kumar Reddy was dismissed at the stroke of lunch, with India still 81 short of victory on Monday’s final afternoon at Lord’s, evening plans were being made, reports had been completed with just the blank (margin of victory) to be filled in. Jadeja made them all redundant, almost scuppering England’s victory plans too until Siraj’s fall, playing Shoaib Bashir on to trigger the aforementioned Jadeja reactions, allowed the hosts to escape to a 22-run win.