Long after the Old Trafford Test match becomes just another page in Wisden, the memory of a charming, almost embarrassed young man receiving the Man of the Match award will linger. Sachin Tendulkar will score many more hundreds for India but the freshness of this one will never fade.

"I was there," the spectators will say forever and what a tragedy there were only 1778 of them. Never was it more truly said that the loss was entirely theirs.