India, July 6 -- "Boring, Boring Indians." Loud chants rang out from the packed Hollies Stand, its occupants clearly in high spirits after generously having courted Bacchus. You could see where they were coming from.

India's lead had already touched 591 when Shubman Gill's wonderful second century of the match came to an end. The sight of Nitish Kumar Reddy walking out at that stage, with potentially 22 overs of batting left in the evening, didn't improve their mood, already blue after another day of batting domination by the visitors. They wanted their guys to go out and do their thing, they didn't want India to add to a total that, in 148 years of Test cricket, had never been even remotely threatened.

Which brought the question - how ...