Never try to explain Test cricket to an American. In sport, Americans value brevity, drama, a guaranteed resolution. Draws are anathema and ways must be found to avoid them. Two enterprising journalists once took Groucho Marx to an MCC game at Lord’s and he pronounced it “a wonderful cure for insomnia”.

What Groucho would have made of the “timeless” Test in Durban in March 1939 – it had been going on for 10 days before England, close to victory, decided that they had to catch the boat home – doesn’t bear thinking about. George Bernard Shaw summed it up perfectly: “The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.”

Yet, as the Lord’s Test between England and India that concluded on Monday in dramatic fashion with a victory for the home team by 22 runs showed, Test cricket can also provide the most gripping sport of all – in large part because it unfolds over five days, slowly........

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