Was it the googly to Ollie Pope that left him hopelessly stranded a few metres down the pitch? Was it the confluence of flight and drift that invited a drive from Zak Crawley only to turn back sharply and hit leg stump?

Or was it the classic two-card trick that bamboozled Ben Stokes?

Take your pick because Kuldeep Yadav produced an exhibition of left-arm wrist spin on Thursday. It was a display that simply took your breath away and left England searching for answers - they were shot out for 218 in 57.4 overs -- after winning the toss and batting on a pitch that Stokes had described as a "belter" on the eve of the fifth Test.

The description of the surface wasn't inaccurate, India sauntering to 135/1 at a run rate of 4.5. Yashasvi Jaiswal was the lone Indian wicket to fall but not before he became only the second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to surpass the 700-run tally in a series.

This isn't the first sublime spell that Kuldeep has delivered over the past few

weeks, but it was his first five-wicket haul of the series - his spell of 15-1-72-5 was only interrupted by the lunch interval. The reward was richly deserved for a bowler who has had to bide his time in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja's shadow.

To think that Kuldeep - he took a four-wicket haul on debut against Australia at this venue in 2017 - may not have played here if India had opted for three seamers seems astounding now. But it was perhaps contemplated going by Rohit Sharma's pre-match media interaction.

The first hour of play on Thursday morning did suggest that India may be a seamer short; there's always lateral movement in this part of the world at this time of the year. The cold conditions even as the stadium basked in mild sunshine - a relief after the rain forecast earlier in the week - were ripe for Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj to exploit.