Last Wednesday evening at about 9pm, the peace of our quiet south London street was broken by a wailing screech followed by a loud bang. Someone had taken the turning a little too quickly and skidded onto the pavement, totalling the “20mph” sign on the corner. He continued home, but leaving a substantial chunk of his front wing (including the number plate) at the scene. (The police officers who attended a few minutes later didn’t exactly need to be Sherlock Holmes to solve that one!)

I can’t quite decide if England are the car or the 20mph sign in this metaphor; but either way… it was a car crash!

England were defeated, an hour and a half into the final morning, by the small matter of 270 runs, having made 170 and 186 – indicating that they wouldn’t have won this match even if they’d had a third innings to do it!

Sophie Ecclestone scored a maiden international 50, which gave the England fans something to cheer… or would have done if there were any in; but as far as I could see, almost everyone who took advantage of the free tickets available for the final day was an India supporter.

Ecclestone was given out LBW on 44, and having confessed in yesterday evening’s press conference that “sometimes I hate cricket”, I did wonder if she might be relieved to just walk off; but you can’t say that she isn’t a competitor. She immediately reviewed, and was reprieved by a small spike on UltraEdge, which allowed her to reach her maiden milestone. (I had in my mind that she already had a T20 50 against South Africa at Derby, but it turns out it was just a very rapid 33!)

Any hopes England might have had of saving this Test match (and I’m honestly struggling to believe there really were any) were extinguished with the dismissal of Amy Jones, who struck her second 50 of the match before reaching for a completely unnecessary pull and (you’re not going to believe this!) getting caught on the ring. I know that 9 Test matches aren’t a lot – some of the boys will occasionally play that many in a year – but you’d have thought she’d have learned something from them, like… you don’t have to hit it if it isn’t going anywhere near the stumps!

Issy Wong looked more the part, digging in for 1 off 30 balls. She is (I suspect not entirely uncoincidentally) one of the ones who watched a lot of (men’s) Test cricket as a kid, so she was doing all the right things – leaving alone, or getting well down the pitch to defend. It took a change of bowling to see her on her way, finally outfoxed by the craft of Deepti.

It was a pretty disappointing end to the summer for England. (Though there are ODIs in September against Ireland, which will likely be played by an “A” XI.) Nat Sciver-Brunt took a lot of stick for electing to bowl first; although I suspect the decision was at least 50% Charlotte Edwards’. My guess is that this will be NSB’s final game as captain, which might explain why she was so desperate to play – Charlie Dean will almost certainly lead the side in those ODIs versus Ireland, and it would make sense to appoint her full time from there. Dean has shown she can do the job; and it would permit NSB to focus on staying fit, which might be the one thing that would allow her to fulfill her dream of playing in the Olympics.

With other retirements already announced, some have asked if this might also be the end of the line for Jones; but I doubt it. Frustrating as she can be to those of us who have to watch her repeatedly make the same mistakes over and over again with the bat, she remains far and away both the best wicket keeper we have, and the best batter of the other ‘keepers. With England’s coaching teams having had long hard looks over the past few months at Southby, Chathli and (here) Threlkeld and apparently decided “No”, I would imagine that they are now keeping their fingers crossed that Jemima Spence (who looks very promising, but not quite ready for this level yet) might be the answer in a couple of years, with Jones retaining the gloves until then.

As an occasion, this Test has felt incredibly positive, with fans turning out in their tens of thousands in weather that was (if anything) a little too perfect, as London suffered under its third heatwave* of the summer. India showed how positive Test cricket can be played, and we were entertained (if perhaps not inspired!) as they extended their unbeaten Test record in England to 10 matches.

England meanwhile have won just one Test in the past decade, against South Africa; and none against the other members of the “Big Three”. Can they correct that statistic next summer in The Ashes? I’m afraid I’d put my money on another car crash; but if it is a car crash involving a new, younger team led by Charlie Dean, at least we’ll be able to say we’re looking to the future, having left the past out here today, where it belongs at this most historic of grounds.

————–

*Or is this just a continuation of the second?