England in touching distance of handing Alastair Cook the perfect parting gift

With the evening light fading and the sky streaked with red, Alastair Cook trotted through for one last single. The Oval was still full; they had stayed to see him off, and as he ended the day unbeaten they got to their feet. Cook looked a touch bemused by the reception, somehow unable to raise his bat to acknowledge them. After all, he had only 46 runs to his name. There was a job still to be done.

And with two days remaining, England are in a superb position to finish it off. After the fireworks of Ravindra Jadeja hauled India back into the game earlier in the day, a reassuring evening with the bat took England's lead past 150 with their current captain and former captain at the crease, and most of their batting still to come. A wholly unmerited 4-1 series triumph is within their grasp, and yet perhaps the nicest thing we could say about this England side is that like Cook, it has squeezed the very maximum out of this series.

Where India have rallied, England have fought back. After a frustrating opening session, in which they found early breakthroughs hard to come by, the game was in the balance. England were thwarted by Jadeja, whose brilliant and resilient unbeaten 86 was the sort of characterful, enterprising innings the series needed: batting in a cap against the spinners, playing his shots, and celebrating his half-century with his signature sword dance, twiddling and brandishing his bat as if it were a scimitar.

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As Jadeja hewed away at England’s total, at one stage threatening to erase it entirely, you wondered whether India missed a trick by not deploying him earlier in the series. For one thing, the rankings class him as the world’s best spinner, No 3 behind James Anderson and Kagiso Rabada, even if consensus and statistics suggest his left-arm spin is much more effective in Asia.

But quite apart from his sparky batting, tidy bowling and fine catching, Jadeja is simply one of those cricketers who gets up the noses of his opponents. You may remember his altercation with Anderson at Trent Bridge four years ago, for which he was fined, and for all his rough edges, every team needs one or two characters who simply spice the pot and embrace the battle. The look on Anderson’s face as his old sparring partner smeared him back over his head for six certainly suggested as much.

With the help of Hanuma Vihari, who made a fine 56 on debut, Jasprit Bumrah, who hung around at No 11 allowing Jadeja to add 32 for the last wicket, and Keaton Jennings, who dropped Bumrah first ball at silly point, Jadeja heaved India to 292 with some shrewd cultivation of the strike. And indeed Jennings will not remember this day with any great nostalgia, as he was knocked over early in England’s second innings, shouldering arms to a Mohammed Shami delivery that actually clipped the top of middle stump.

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Were Cook not on his way out, you would be hard pushed to recommend Jennings for a berth on the forthcoming tour to Sri Lanka. It has been a historically tough summer in which to open the batting, for sure, and England clearly like his attitude. But after averaging just 18 this series, with no half-centuries since his breakthrough tour of India in 2016-17, his confidence will be in bits. Nonetheless you suspect England will persevere with him, and so the decision of Cook to end his Test career may well have saved Jennings his.

Moeen Ali again looked tidy enough, getting to 20 before being bowled by Jadeja through the gate. The last hour of the day saw an extremely pleasant cameo from Joe Root, who added an unbeaten 52 with Cook, driving and glancing the ball with good balance. Apart from several inexplicable changes of ball - clearly this batch of Duke’s is struggling to keep its shape - it was an idyllic day’s Test cricket. And unless India can induce some quick wickets on Monday morning, England are within touching distance of giving their record run-scorer the perfect parting gift.