The Oval learning curve: When India's quicks course-corrected on the go

Today was the day they'd warned about.

India took the light roller in the morning, hoping to preserve a bit of juice in the pitch for their bowlers, and lost their four remaining wickets in 28 minutes, across just 34 deliveries. Then England wheeled out the heavy roller, not to tame the menace, but to smooth the stage for their own. How would India's 224 stack up against a philosophy?

On the 22nd day of the series, Bazball arrived in all its unruly glory. The word - so often accompanied by an exclamation or a sigh, depending on the side of the fence - today felt less like a slogan, more like reflex. And if ever there was a day for it, this was it: the pitch alive, the opposition's total middling, the risk-reward equation tilted just enough. This was a chance for another thumb to the eye of tradition, but one that made perfect cricketing sense. On a surface like the one at The Oval, it wasn't about surviving the test. It was about landing your shots first.

Funnily enough, it was India who landed the first jab. After a tidy first over, Akash Deep sent a sharp nip-backer into Ben Duckett's groin. His next ball seamed away and India burned a review chasing an LBW that wasn't there. Then came the mood swing: Duckett charged and missed, fended another off the splice that lobbed just between two fielders, and finally, with audacity still unbeaten, reverse-scooped the last ball for six.

India might still have claimed moral victory in the moment, if they hadn't lost their lengths and gone 10 overs without a boundary-free set or a wicket. In that time, Duckett and Zak Crawley plundered 92 runs. The spell's most audacious moment came when Siraj offered a full ball outside off, an invitation to drive. Instead, Duckett walked across his stumps, got inside the line, and scooped it over the 'keeper's head for six.

It was the final ball of the seventh over. Siraj wandered to mid-on, dazed. KL Rahul, the designated ball-shiner, had to call out three times before he could toss him the ball, which Siraj passed along absent-mindedly. Ravindra Jadeja then strolled over, gesturing for calm. Shubman Gill took him off after four.

It was hard to say if Siraj had bowled well or poorly. The truth lay somewhere in between. But in Test cricket, bowlers of the quality of Siraj don't usually go at seven an over in a "somewhere-in-between" spell. That's Bazball for you: turning half-spells into full-blown spells of pressure.

Yet this wasn't the