Mohammed Siraj might have won the player of the match award for his heroics at the Oval for India. But Prasidh Krishna also played a perfect supporting role for him, accounting for eight wickets. They replicated a 56-year-old record for India together.

From being the second act to being the man who said, “I want to play this Test and win it for India”, life has come a full circle for Mohammed Siraj. The India pacer finished the five-match Test series against England with 23 scalps.

Test cricket is the cruellest sport: a game in which five days of toil, and 25 in a five-match series, can be decided by impossibly fine margins. But, just occasionally, Test matches get the denouement that they deserve.