Maybe. But the margin of victory underplays how poor the Indian batting was or how comprehensively they were outplayed. Malan played badly enough to lose his spot, he still outscored Vijay, Rahul, Rahane and Karthik and only scored 9 less runs than Dhawan. That’s all the batsmen, except for Kohli.

Like Deets said, 194 was impossible in the 4th innings. The tension that KC alludes to – two wickets, 40 runs, etc. – I doubt it was that significant.

Ya for sure…

I think what Sam might mean is that he didn’t think there was only one result possible. I know I didn’t. In fact, by lunchtime on the third day things were looking distinctly India, and even at the end of that day, Kohli still being at the crease meant that India were still well and truly ‘in it’.

Of course, our respective pessimisms bend in opposite directions. We need a neutral’s opinion really.

Given the slip cordon’s catching skills, at least another two.

It’s like watching a Bond movie, you know how it ends, the curiosity is only in how you get there.

England out test the India. In the first match of the home series, the England Crickets won by 31 runnings. Sam Curran retired four straight Indians for an MVP performance – he also went 63 for only one out in the top of the 2nd. Virat Kohli went one better with over 200 scores for the match, but he was wicketed late on by Ben Stokes’s leg ball to give England the win. With 40 outs, this equalled the world record for most outs in a cricket game. Next up for England – a return fixture at the home of the Lords in London, England.

For the next test, I will be in Iceland. Parodying Icelandic sport reporting is going to be a lot trickier. I wonder if they use the extra S?