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.

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.