Half an hour after tea as England's Bazballers were locked in a tight huddle following KL Rahul's dismissal, a roar from the crowd sent out a message most of India would have been praying for. It was loud and clear.

"K-o-h-l-i, K-o-h-l-i", went the chant from the enclosure next to the Indian dressing room. The batting mainstay has taken a break from the first two Tests because of "personal reasons", but his absence was more than felt as they made a mess of the chase on Sunday.

Rohit Sharma's men looked nervous and bereft of ideas on how to bat on a fourth day turning wicket having seemingly lost all the virtues of positive intent. As Rahul Dravid admitted later, the 231-run target was always going to be "challenging" and it showed in his players' approach.

It probably was well defined in a ridiculously brilliant piece of fielding by Ben Stokes which resulted in the run out of Ravindra Jadeja, who the England captain later described as a "rabbit" between the wickets.

Jadeja's departure sank all hopes of taking a 1-0 lead in the series. Debutant Tom Hartley, who finished with 7/62, was far superior on the day with his skills and nagging accuracy.

The Indians did cling on to their faint hopes when Ravichandran Ashwin and KS Bharat put on 57 in 130 balls for the eighth wicket. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj then rekindled expectations with another 25 runs in a last-ditch effort but it was too little as they fell 28 runs short.

"When you are put against a wall, you need to show character and you need to be brave enough, which I thought we weren't," Rohit summed it up well.

Stokes, who recovered from knee surgery only a couple of months ago, ran out Jadeja with a direct, reverse flick while being completely off balance. Jadeja looked a bit sluggish in making it to the non-striker's end.

Such moments often define close contests and Stokes' men certainly showed the desire to make it count. For most of England's second innings, the Indians moved around with drooping shoulders on the field as Ollie Pope excelled with his fluent batting without taking unnecessary risks.

It was mainly because of Pope that England managed to turn it around after being 190 runs in arrears and being reduced to 163/5 on the third afternoon. When last man Jack Leach hobbled out having injured his knee while fielding, Pope seemed in a hurry to get the four runs required for his double century. But he missed out on the reverse scoop this time.

Stokes' men didn't forget to thank the spectators while the Barmy Army trumpeter played "jingle bells" in the stands much to the delight of the Sunday crowd.

England knew they had to get rid of Rohit and Rahul at the earliest to harbour hopes of a victory. Both the batters fell to deliveries which didn't turn as much as they expected.

But it was the lack of application of youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer that will continue to haunt Dravid.