Stokes' waning influence with the bat on full display thanks to Jadeja and Sundar

It was raining hard in Birmingham on Sunday morning. A weight of great black clouds broke over the city while it was feeling its way into the day.

- Andy Bull

It was raining hard in Birmingham on Sunday morning. A weight of great black clouds broke over the city while it was feeling its way into the day. On the streets, people pressed themselves together under the cover of bus stops and awnings: revellers off to the Queens Heath pride festival, heavy metal lovers making their way home after Black Sabbath's farewell gig at Villa Park the previous evening, and cricket supporters bound for the ground, most of them with last-minute tickets, split between anxious Indian and wry English fans, the only people in the city who were happy enough to be getting wet.

The bad weather was about the only way England were going to get out of this match with a draw. A team who have spent three years learning how to do the improbable were in no position at all to attempt the unremarkable and bat out the match, even after the rain had washed out the first hour and a half of the day.

Their attempt to play out the remaining 80 overs of the game was as good as up by the lunch break, broken by a superb spell of fast bowling by Akash Deep, who had played only seven Tests before this, but is 28 and has spent years in Indian first-class cricket learning how to get every last bit out of unhelpful pitches such as this one.