I feel bad for people who don’t care for Test cricket.

In what other form of the game would a haphazard defensive stroke, hardly off the middle of the bat and yielding zero runs, make the decibels go up around the stadium? Or, that a brief, two-minute confrontation right at the end of Day Three — sparked by a tactic unique to Test cricket: Time-wasting — would lead to two days of fiery tension and sledging, only to culminate in a warm display of sportsmanship and mutual respect? It should hardly matter for cricket fans that India lost the third Anderson–Tendulkar Trophy Test against England at Lords, the supposed mecca of cricket. The slow-burn match itself was a godsend in an era dominated by T20 cricket. A battle of attrition; of sheer will.

Chasing a target of 193 — rather modest for a batting side whose lowest total across five innings in the first three Tests had been 364 — it was the bowling side that needed a miracle. But half an hour into the final day’s play,........

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