This was England’s third Test defeat of the summer but the inquest will surely be brief after a spellbinding win for India
Forget about operas and fat ladies singing, you know a Test is over when India’s captain starts conducting. It happened here 24 minutes, five overs and two wickets after lunch on the final day, shortly after Ollie Pope’s stumps had been rearranged by Jasprit Bumrah. First a few overhead claps, then Virat Kohli extended his arms to full width and swayed them gently up and down, like an albatross in flight. Not an inappropriate bird, England might have thought, for Kohli to be impersonating.
The pocket of the JM Finn stand that has been overwhelmingly populated by India’s blue shirts throughout the Test responded immediately and vocally. It was on. Four-and-not-quite-a-half days of perfectly poised cricket and suddenly, in the space of a few minutes, the scales tilt.
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