When Harry Brook was blazing away, making the most of a fortuitous letoff on 19, it appeared as if a Test series that had ebbed and flowed for the preceding 23 days would end in anti-climactic fashion. But the cricketing gods wouldn’t allow that, would they?

Brook arrived in a blaze of boundaries, seeking a release from the hold India had imposed on the fourth day of the final Test at the Oval by picking off Ben Duckett and stand-in skipper Ollie Pope within the first 75 minutes of the Sunday start. Overnight 50 for one, England were staring down the barrel at 106 for three, the target of 374 a million miles away, when the towering Brook joined fellow-Yorkshireman Joe Root.

India’s Prasidh Krishna celebrates the wicket of Joe Root on Sunday. PIC/AFP