Spellbound by stalemate, sipped like Amrita

It ended like a page-turner, as only Test cricket can write it.

India's six-run win over England at The Oval on Monday, leading to a drawn series at 2–2, reaffirmed that Test cricket, at its finest, invites you to be a willing hostage to time.

The inaugural Tendulkar-Anderson series saw two elite teams produce a slow-burning epic with every run and session. You went to bed with scenarios in your head; you woke up wondering who would crack first.

At 339 for six overnight, England needed 35. India needed four wickets. It could've gone either way; but not-knowing was the point.

No super over could recreate that tormenting suspense; teach belief the way Mohammed Siraj's fire-breathing spell did -- three for nine in a morning burst, including the final wicket that sent the visitors into cloud nine.

That's what this game does. It restores belief even when stretched thin. It makes cynics dreamers.

KL Rahul, who's seen it all -- from ICC trophies to franchise glitz -- called this "everything."

Across the series, there were 7,187 runs; 21 centuries; nine batters with 400-plus runs. But the stat that arguably appeals most? All five matches went to the fifth day.

Richard Gould, the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) chief, called it "25 absorbing days where two outstanding sides gave everything." He wasn't exaggerating.

As usual, white-ball fixtures will dominate the calendar in the coming days, weeks and months, but for now, let the unmatched beauty of cricket sink in. Let this series breathe, exhaling so slow that even the upper lip wouldn't feel the warmth.

This was a drawn series, but one that felt alive and rejuvenated the old-school charm of the sport. It was, in essence, Amrita -- the nectar of immortality in Hindu mythology -- savoured slowly over 25 long days.

No rush, no shortcuts, only slow sips of the good stuff.

This series is why we cricket fans often schedule in advance to worry overnight, reserving our thoughts to cricket only. It's not that Test cricket never ends in draws. It's that even those results are rich in catharsis.

A tie in ODI or T20 is chaos. In Test cricket, it's a treatise to the beauty of balance, of equality.

Here, in the classical realm, the word 'stale' doesn't define a stalemate.